Oh, You Two (Why Can't You See You Belong Together?)
by lilithtorch2
Summary: Latest version to show up in AO3 account (same id) first. The romantic tension between Natasha Romanoff and Bucky Barnes affects everyone in S.H.I.E.L.D., not just themselves. Different timeline from "I Will Always Find You." Partial commentary on romantic tension tropes. Alternative timeline. Also-The Wayne family.
1. Not the Shawarma!

*****A/N: Completely redoing the original version of this story, which had been titled "I Hate a Goddamn Whiner." Here is a new chapter. Bruce Wayne cameos.*****

* * *

"Bucky," Tony Stark began, "tell me this isn't the best shawarma you've had."

"This is the _only_ shawarma I've had." James 'Bucky' Barnes took another bite off the sandwich. "But absolutely delicious."

"Awesome." Tony went into a monologue about how Pepper, his girlfriend, still couldn't understand the hype behind it all, but mentioned that he was glad to convert another person to the wonders of shawarma.

Most of the Avengers: Tony Stark, the billionaire engineer; Steve Rogers, the patriotic captain; Bruce Banner, the intelligent scientist; Natasha Romanoff, the stoic ex-Russian agent; Clint Barton, the heroic archer; and James 'Bucky' Barnes, the newest recruit rescued from the K.G.B. had assembled in the eatery in New York City eating shawarma that Tony had recommended as "the best, here on Earth and in other planets and alternate universes," and their meal was his treat. Unfortunately, Thor had sent his deepest regrets that he couldn't make it; he was managing family conflicts back in Asgard.

Tony decided to bring everyone here because one, it was lunch break, and two, because poor Bucky had never eaten the sandwich before, because he'd been trapped in ice and brainwashed in snow for decades. He deserved to know the gastronomic gloriousness that was beef and lamb meat sandwiched in between pita bread and flavored with onions. As the Avengers always did, the group talked about everything they could think of: the latest football game, their missions, time travel (a favorite topic of Bruce Banner and Tony's) and wondered how Thor was doing ("Do you think Thor will need our help?" "Nah, I'm sure he'll dramatically come down from the sky if he did").

After about thirty minutes, a young petite woman with long dark hair entered the eatery. No one paid attention to her at first, because who would? It was just another person who enjoyed eating here, just another New Yorker or maybe even a tourist. But when her blue eyes fell on Bucky and her face lit up the way a fan would when she recognized a celebrity, they realized that she wasn't just anybody.

She knew Bucky.

They pretended not to know that the brunette had recognized Bucky and continued to eat their meal as usual. Tony continued to talk as if nothing was going on while Clint ate his sandwich quietly. Bruce secretly hoped she'd walk away. They all looked at Natasha to see how she'd react, but she only kept her face expressionless and talked in a level voice about how she was looking forward to Tony's annual New Year's bash.

Except that this was May, and New Year's was still seven months away.

The woman confidently sidled up next to Bucky. "Hi, Bucky," she said, in a voice that sounded like a flute singing.

Bucky, ignoring Natasha, simply turned his head to look at the woman and gave her his most charming smile. "Hi, Kat-"

Oh god. _That _Kat_._ Kat was short for Katerina. About a year ago, Natasha had asked Bruce something-or-other, a billionaire from the nearby city of Gotham, to be her plus one to Tony's annual spring charity gala. The man had chiseled features and perfect dark hair. He was able to pull off charming and elegant. (Some of the Avengers suspected that his personality was just as dark and brooding as Bucky's.) Bucky had retaliated by showing up with Katerina, an up and coming ballerina in the New York dance scene. No one thought it was a coincidence at all that Katerina was a talented dancer who just happened to have Russian blood boiling in her veins. No one thought it was a coincidence at all that Natasha and Bucky had basically picked for their plus ones a man and a woman who were basically the better versions of Natasha and Bucky.

Needless to say, the day after the gala, the other Avengers found Bucky and Natasha arguing. It was something they'd hoped would have died down by now, considering a year had passed. A bickering couple (because, let's face it, even if Bucky and Natasha didn't know it, they were pretty much an item now) did not make for good cooperation in the team.

"Bucky," the woman moved even closer to the man, and everyone watched as Natasha quickly glared at the two before resuming her sandwich, "where have you been? I haven't heard from you in awhile!"

This was the point when Bucky briefly glanced over at Natasha (Steve thought that Bucky wasn't aware he was doing that). His eyes flitted back to Katerina and he answered her question charismatically, and she giggled and laughed with him, touching him playfully on the arm.

"You tried the shawarma yet?" Bucky asked charismatically.

"No!" Clint looked up, alarmed, before he caught himself and resumed eating.

The woman ignored Clint. "Is it any good?" Everything she said was laced with a poisonous and flirtatious tone that threatened to sacrifice the innocent shawarma in the name of tension.

Bucky grinned and nodded, but then he subconsciously glanced in Natasha's direction again before admitting apologetically that he would have to leave soon on another mission and probably wouldn't have time to see Katerina again. So the ballerina only laughed again and, taking her cue, left the scene.

And then all eyes were directed warily toward Bucky and Natasha.

Steve broke the silence first. "Geezus, Bucky," he said, "you've only been with S.H.I.E.L.D. a couple of years after being in Russia for _so long_ and you still manage have women hanging all over you."

Bucky only laughed at this, but everyone swore he was trying to get Natasha's attention with his brief glances, as if to apologize to her.

"The original player," Tony said in awe.

"Nah," Bucky deflected, "it's not _that _bad."

At this point, Natasha immediately slammed down her napkin and empty tray on the table, and made a show of getting up to leave. She muttered her thanks to Tony for paying for her meal, refused to look in Bucky's direction, and made her dramatic exit from the eatery.

The Avengers watched as Bucky, panicked, got up to chase after her, and Steve, the unfortunate middle-man between them, got up to follow those two. They heard Bucky asking Natasha what was wrong and heard Natasha's quiet but forceful reply and Steve's voice trying to mediate the two (more like 'babysitting,' but no one would dare say _that_ out loud to either Bucky or Natasha).

Shit. Bucky and Natasha were at it again.


	2. The Dueling Hotheads, Part 1

Clint made another regular visit to the I.T. Department of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agency, carrying the obligatory food as a peace offering in return for gathering intel on missions. This time it was three boxes of child mahi mahi fish tacos (the I.T. department's favorite) while someone behind him helped carry pink raspberry lemonade. As he dropped off the food and drink in the center of the stuffy room, many of the I.T. people circled around him like vultures, waiting to enjoy their late afternoon lunch for the day. He looked around for his friend, Aamir from I.T. Aamir had frequently helped him out of a bind during missions and it was through one of those missions that they discovered a shared interest in survival horror games. ("You have time for that?" "Gotta work on my accuracy any way I can, don't I?")

Clint walked over to Aamir, waving hi. After the usual chitchat, he got to the point. "You know that application you made?" Clint asked him.

Aamir from I.T. looked up from his computer. "Yes?" He had created an application tracking the dates of each of Bucky and Natasha's fights, and the number of days since the last one. Everyone knew about it except Bucky, Natasha, and Nick Fury. (No one wanted to tell Nick Fury, because he would give everyone hell for slacking off.) A team comprised of people from Research and Development, Weather, Finance, and Statistics was also using the data to predict the dates of Bucky and Natasha's future outbursts. They knew for sure that every time Natasha and Bucky had a fight, it would go on for days before stopping. But as long as Aamir didn't send out any text alerts, everyone could breathe a sigh of relief each day as they went to work.

"We need to reset the numbers," Clint confessed apologetically.

"Are you serious? But three weeks is the longest we've gone without any infighting! I want it to stay that way! You know their fights are worse than any horror game we've ever played lately. Last time they fought, Stanley from Accounting couldn't take it anymore and hid in the basement. Clint…" Aamir looked at him seriously. "Stanley deserves better than this."

When Clint couldn't respond, Aamir sighed, resigning himself to his fate. "So what color alert is it this time?" He had also implemented color alerts: green, blue, yellow, orange, and red, into the application. Green was minor bickering over things like the way you left a fork sitting on a plate. Blue meant that the bickering had escalated from once a day to about three times a day. Yellow meant that, because of some recent event, the bickering had a 95% chance of getting serious: the frequency increased to about five times a day, but the timing of each was unpredictable. Orange meant that Bucky and Natasha couldn't even go on missions together and that productivity would go down. No one wanted to imagine what red would mean.

"Well," Clint began, "Katerina was at the eatery."

"No!" Aamir gasped. Even he knew what happened at Tony's annual spring gala last year. There were always women in Bucky's life, but Katerina…Natasha seemed to feel threatened by her. "So, yellow or orange, then?"

"Let's start with yellow," Clint reasoned cautiously. "Fury hasn't sent them out on missions together yet."

"I hope he never does." It was finally time to send the dreaded text alert to everyone who had Aamir's application. As the phones around Clint and Aamir buzzed and rang, he could hear the nervous chatter of the agents as they ate their tacos. He checked his phone. Someone had sent an image of a character clad in black crying, "NOOOOOOOOO."

There was arguing coming from outside the I.T. wing. "Here goes," Clint said, shrugging. He walked out of the wing just as the agents began to implement security protocols appropriate for a code yellow alert. As expected, he saw Natasha walking away and Bucky chasing after her, and decided to watch along with the crowd of agents that was forming around the two hotheads. He didn't have anything else to do for the day. Besides, Bucky and Natasha didn't seem to care either way. They were more interested in arguing with each other.

"No, I don't understand," Bucky was saying.

"What don't you understand?" Natasha retorted.

"All I did was start with S.H.I.E.L.D. and you're just…so…_angry. _I thought you'd be happy that I'm back?" He was referring to their shared history with Russia and the K.G.B.

She gave him a look. There was more yelling (someone clocked the argument in at fifteen minutes and counting now), and Bucky was protesting that he couldn't help being himself. Natasha said something about "how can you be so cocky after everything that's happened to you?" Clint had to agree with Bucky's protest that he needed to be optimistic somehow or else he'd never move on. Without warning, the argument suddenly veered into unknown and mundane territory and this time they were arguing about who got the locker closest to the entrance to the S.H.I.E.L.D. building. Clint could barely follow the argument, but he suspected that, whether they knew it or not, Bucky and Natasha actually enjoyed arguing with each other about anything and everything even if it didn't really make sense.

"What are you so mad for?" Bucky protested.

"Really?" Natasha paused. "You have women hanging all over you like…like…" She caught herself before she started to say something nasty.

"Come on, Nat," Bucky tried to calm her, "they're just my friends."

"Oh, is that how you see them?"

Clint suspected that what she really meant was, "is that how you see me? As just a friend?" but he didn't want to intervene. The last time anyone tried to talk to Natasha, they were sent to the medical wing.

Bucky seemed to know that this was what Natasha was thinking too, and he tried to say something to calm her. Clint sighed; Bucky's charisma worked on most women except for Natasha. Clint doubted that any of Bucky's one-liners would work on Natasha. She didn't take bullshit from anyone.

"What about Katerina?" This in Russian, Clint noted.

Bucky responded back with Russian as well. "Nat, come on, Kat's just a friend. I hadn't talked to her since…" his voice faltered. "She just happened to show up."

What Clint suspected Bucky really wanted to say was, "Nat, why can't you tell I like you?" But again, no intervening. Bucky was even worse; even though he never did anything, the quiet, brooding anger that seethed inside him from years of Russian torture and trauma was enough to terrorize the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. People were sure that if they tried anything stupid, he would haunt them in the middle of the night and kill them in their sleep.

"Oh my god, it is _just like you_ to be so dense!" Natasha responded angrily (back in English again) as she continued to walk.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Everyone's 'just a friend' to you," she sighed. She gave him the oddest look, but then kept moving. Her heels clacked angrily against the concrete. As Bucky chased after Natasha for the umpteenth time, Clint watched as the other agents received the code yellow and started handing each other soundproof headsets to prepare for more arguments later . Someone offered him a set, and he waved his hands 'no.' He already had one stored in his locker just for such a day.


	3. Sunflowers are Natasha's Favorite

Three weeks of non-stop arguing turned into one glorious week of hushed silence. All the agents breathed a sigh of relief; they could finally focus on something else. But then one day, Alfred Pennyworth, wearing a very grave expression, a formal dress suit and pure white gloves, easily sauntered past the security level of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agency, securely holding two items. One was a small bouquet of five freshly cut red sunflowers wrapped carefully around the leaves and the stems with a small length of custom-embroidered silk cloth the color of cyan. The other was a tiny brown box neatly tied up in a small silver ribbon with a notecard attached to it. As he strode coolly along the hallways, the agents stared at him and whispered. Was he the butler of Wayne Manor? But he _never_ made public appearances like this, especially not dressed like that. Normally, the butler of Wayne Manor kept a low profile, so what was he doing here? Did he know someone from S.H.I.E.L.D.? The butler, ignoring the talking, kept his vision steadfastly ahead of him. He'd been around the Wayne family long enough to learn how to be famous and casual about it at the same time.

When Alfred finally made his way to the main office wing of S.H.I.E.L.D., Tony, who was leading a mini-project with Research & Development, instantly recognized him as his one-time father figure.

Tony stopped whatever he was doing and called out to the elder man, "Alfred!" He knew the man because, even though the press affectionately dubbed him and Bruce the "spoiled party princes of the U.S.A.," the Wayne butler always managed to keep them grounded. When the families would travel on business, Alfred was often the only one standing in the way of the two teenage sons' testosterone- and booze-filled antics because "you both eventually need to learn the responsibilities of managing the family business."

Alfred, upon hearing Tony's voice, broke his serious demeanor and greeted him. "Hello, Anthony," he greeted. Alfred was the only person who could call Tony "Anthony."

"You know the guy?" Paul from Research and Development asked curiously.

Tony nodded, and introduced Alfred to the scientist and the rest of his team as "Bruce Wayne's butler." Everyone knew who Bruce Wayne was. Considering that the man himself wasn't here in person, the team decided that meeting the personal butler of Bruce Wayne was as close to fame as it got. They were super excited.

After asking after Pepper, Alfred congratulated Tony on being able to "put his ego in check long enough to save New York City, and as a result, the rest of the world, from alien attack." He'd been watching the news lately.

"How's Bruce doing?" Tony wondered. "He didn't send you here to ask me out on a date, did he? Because I'm taken, you know."

The elder man chuckled softly. "Master Wayne has finally found time outside of his spelunking," – code for Bruce's nightly vigilantism that Tony knew about – "to focus on himself. He sent me here on a…_personal_ matter."

"Personal matter, Alfred?" Tony asked him. "You've got to be more specific than that."

"Oh," Alfred responded, with a twinkle in his eye, "you'll find out soon enough. You know how secretive Bruce can get. Remember when you two were in high school? He wouldn't tell us about Rachel until they were going to Prom." He was referring to one of Bruce's exes, Rachel Dawes, another of Bruce and Tony's childhood friends. Alfred added that he was glad to see Bruce going out into the world again after his parents' death.

Tony nodded, but the suspense was killing him. "You sure you don't want to tell me anything?"

"It will reveal itself in due time," Alfred said cryptically, and continued on his way. He only paused to inquire a bored security guard for the location of a certain woman's office. Tony was definitely happy for his childhood friend, but if he was right about the woman that Bruce was interested in, there would be some…_interesting ramifications_ at the office. And if he was right, then the betrayal from his best friend and colleague really stung. "Why didn't they tell me they started dating? I'm their _friend!_"

"Tell you what?" Steve said, walking over to him.

"That's the Wayne family's butler," Tony pointed at Alfred, indirectly answering the question.

"Wait, Wayne? You mean _Bruce Wayne?"_

"Yes," Tony confirmed.

"You don't mean…" Steve, in his silence, was referring to Natasha's date last year.

"Alfred was holding five sunflowers. _Five_. Freshly cut and wrapped in custom silk cloth." As Tony considered the situation, he magically materialized a bag of popcorn from behind Aamir from I.T.'s computer despite Aamir's protests that Tony was stealing from his own personal stash. He ultimately decided that it was a win-win: his best friend was happy and dating again and he might be able to make some lemons out of lemonade.

"But that's Natasha's favorite flower!"

"Exactly."

"They started seeing each other more after the gala? But I thought after the whole thing at the eatery with the shawarma…"

"I don't know when it started. And didn't you get the code yellow? Probably didn't wor-" He suddenly whirled around to see Bucky looking at them. "I didn't see you there."

Bucky simply asked, "What did you mean by 'they'?"

Steve and Tony only stammered.

Bucky ignored this and continued, "I just saw someone in a nice dress suit walk by. How did he get in here? He's not part of S.H.I.E.L.D., is he?"

Bucky should have known better than anyone what Natasha's favorite flower was, but denial was probably the best defense against reality, after all. His questions were interrupted by giggles from the other end of the wing. He looked past Steve to see a group of women crowding together and began to walk toward them to see what the commotion was about.

"Bucky," Steve ordered, standing in front of his friend, "as your team leader and someone who's known you the longest, I am telling you: whatever you do, don't go that way." He wasn't quite sure how to break the news to him without causing another scene between Bucky and Natasha. He glared at Tony to say something, but Tony just shrugged and continued to eat Aamir's popcorn.

"I don't see what would be so wrong-" The crowd of women parted to reveal the man in the dress suit standing patiently next to Natasha. He heard more "ooh"ing and "aww"ing over the sunflowers and the present. The women wanted to read the note attached to the box, but she refused to let them see. He could hear them mention "Bruce" and he knew, with an odd lump in his throat, that they weren't talking about Bruce Banner. The women were encouraging Natasha to drop everything at work because they'd cover for her anyway. And they'd do their best to come up with an excuse (even a lame one) if Director Nick Fury asked where she was.

"Madame," Alfred was saying flamboyantly, "your carriage awaits."

Natasha followed Alfred out of the entrance to the S.H.I.E.L.D. building. Bruce Wayne's surprise for Natasha was such a pleasant one that she didn't even yell at Bucky as she walked right by him.

"What?" Bucky had expected her to fight him like she usually did, but this time she didn't. His line of sight followed Natasha's heart as it bounded happily into the limousine and Alfred handed her a dress "more suitable for what Master Wayne has planned for today." Bucky didn't know why he was feeling disappointed; he should be feeling relieved that for the first time in his life, he wasn't arguing with Natasha.

Steve carefully observed Bucky's reaction. If Bruce Wayne's public display of affection wasn't enough to get Bucky to face his feelings for Natasha, Steve had no idea what would.


	4. Everybody Talks (Tabloids Assemble!)

"Bruce Wayne's New Girl! What We Know About Natasha Romanoff"

Bucky cursed under his breath. Natasha had just been away on an unexpected vacation for two days and already, the tabloids were talking. The woman's pictures were _everywhere._ On the cover of this particular magazine, there were pictures of Natasha and Bruce holding hands and strolling along the beach. Or holding hands and walking to a nightclub. Or holding hands and shopping. Or holding hands and eating what he could only guess was expensive dessert.

"Bruce Wayne Dating Natasha Romanoff?"

As if he needed _more_ reminders that she was seeing Bruce Wayne. When did that even start? And anyway, that question mark should have been an exclamation mark, because it wasn't a rumor. It was true. If what he read about this Bruce Wayne character was true, as well, then sending in your personal butler to woo the girl meant that Bruce was very interested in Natasha. Bucky was sure that if he pulled off anything like what Bruce Wayne did, Natasha would have slapped him in the face. What was so different about Wayne that attracted Natasha to him so much?

"Bruce Wayne Seen With New Girl in the Bahamas"

So that's where Natasha got dragged off to.

"Black Widow Ensnares Party Prince!"

The writer of this particular article was extremely jealous of Natasha, he could tell. She deliberately chose the worst possible picture of Natasha and plastered it clumsily next to a recent photo of Bruce Wayne. She even went so far as to call Nat anorexic, that she'd been starving herself for years for Bruce Wayne's sake. He knew that Natasha was everything but that; he'd seen the woman eat. She could down just as many steaks as any guy could and still have a great figure. Besides, S.H.I.E.L.D. benched anyone who wasn't in prime physical condition.

And these pinheads even dared to use Natasha's old Russian alias against her. How did they even find that? He needed to talk to Aamir about improving S.H.I.E.L.D. security. He swore under his breath again. He knew firsthand that she didn't "ensnare" anyone. Her tough, take-no-prisoners attitude attracted a certain kind of guy (he admitted to himself that he was one of them), but she didn't open up to just anyone. Bucky knew that of all the probably ten million or so agents in S.H.I.E.L.D. (he'd have to ask Joanne from Human Resources for the exact number, he might be underestimating it), Natasha was closest to Steve, Clint and Tony, and maybe even himself (because they argued so much). But that had taken time. More likely, the Party Prince had somehow snagged the Black Widow.

Bucky wished he could ask Bruce Wayne how that happened.

"Spoiled Party Prince Ready to Settle Down?"

Natasha, as far as Bucky knew, had just started dating the man seriously. Unless she'd been seeing him since last year's charity gala? He sighed. It would be so much easier to move on if her name and her face wasn't everywhere! This writer decided to give an introduction to the two 'Spoiled Party Princes of the U.S.A.': Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne. He briefly discussed Tony Stark's relationship with Pepper Potts, then segued into juicy stuff about Bruce Wayne: he'd previously been linked to several women, including Rachel Dent, Gotham City Assistant District Attorney; heiress and socialite Selina Kyle; famous Las Vegas magician, Zatanna; martial arts trainer Elektra Natchios; and Daily Planet reporter, Lois Lane. 'A source' – there was always a source – confirmed that Bruce Wayne's partying days were over and that he was ready for marriage. Whether it was true or not, the news unnerved Bucky.

"The Fashion Evolution of Bombshell Natasha Romanoff! See page 197."

All Bucky ever did today was go grocery shopping with Steve, and there was Natasha's face, staring back at him. So he decided to purchase a magazine. In the photo, Natasha was wearing the standard S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform for women. It was probably pulled from the public site of S.H.I.E.L.D., but she looked great, as she always did, and most of the paparazzi knew it too. Somehow, in just a couple of days, the tabloids managed to put together a collage of clothes that Natasha Romanoff had worn and when. They already had their radar set on her when she was simply known as "Natalie Rushman," Tony Stark's personal assistant. (So that's what she'd been doing while he was the Winter Soldier, before she even knew he was still alive.) They incorrectly linked her to Tony Stark at the time, but knew that she was not just any average woman. Anyway, he thought grimly, that was probably when she first met Bruce Wayne. Bucky looked at another of Natasha's outfits, this time a tight number with a cheetah print, something she'd worn to one of Tony Stark's parties, he figured. One thing was for sure; she looked great in that too.

God, this woman. She was the only one in this time period who was resistant to his charms. He could charm the pants out of anyone, but Natasha was something else. He'd flirted with her in Russia, but she always managed to keep him at arm's length. Maybe, he thought, that was what he liked about her.

He thought grimly of another woman from another time who had done the exact same thing. Jenny was a bright, happy blonde, but she had Natasha's fiery personality. They had managed to stay together for a full six months before he broke up with her, because they were all too young at the time and he wanted the freedom.

Natasha was just a little different, if only because they'd spent all that time in Russia together. Even as the Winter Soldier he was arguing with her. She liked to incorporate dancing into it; he couldn't see the point and preferred roughhousing it, guns blazing. Still did, actually. And now that Bucky had joined .E.L.D., he still argued with Natasha as if they'd never left Russia.

Well, he _had been_ arguing with her, anyway. He didn't realize how much he liked doing that until she was gone from him for good.


	5. Dueling Hotheads Part 2 Code Red Day

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and employees wouldn't know it, but this was the day that they would find out what Aamir from I.T.'s Code Red would entail. It had been three weeks since Natasha was whisked away on a romantic getaway with Bruce Wayne, and it meant three weeks of complete and utter silence where the agents could focus on procrastinating the fun way, not the "oh my god we have to listen to Bucky and Natasha fight and I can't focus because it's too loud" way. Aamir was especially excited that it had been twenty-one days without any infighting. Twenty-one awesome days without having to send any text alerts.

"We're going to break our record, Clint! This is great!"

He was surprised to find his friend respond with an incredulous look.

"Uh…what?"

Clint asked him, "You haven't been checking out the celebrity gossip at all?"

Aamir frowned in confusion. He didn't know about any gossip and didn't really care. Most of the celebrity gossip was fake and worthless information anyway. Besides, he'd been sick with the flu and focusing on fixing computers, not using them to search for irrelevant rumors. And he would rather stay away from office gossip as well.

Clint sighed; his friend had somehow avoided all the gossip about Bruce Wayne's latest arm candy. "You probably want to start," he suggested, "because it involves Bucky and Natasha."

Aamir perked up.

"Nat started seeing Bruce Wayne. They spent time in the Bahamas."

"You're kidding me?" Aamir was dejected. "Bob's going to be so disappointed!" Bob was the head janitor and longtime supporter of Bucky/Natasha, or "Winter Widow," as he liked to call the two. Clint emphasized that Bob was probably already disappointed because he actually _did_ read celebrity gossip.

"What code alert will this be?" Aamir pondered.

Clint shrugged. "I have no idea."

And for ten more days, they didn't have to know. When Natasha returned from her trip, her mood had changed for the better, even though Director Nick Fury scolded her for running off like that without telling him anything. She just spent a lot of time on the phone with Bruce Wayne on the other end, and Bucky would grumble that Natasha found the guy attractive because he had "loads of money to blow." When Bucky would muck up the courage to ask Tony about Bruce Wayne, Tony would say nothing even though he knew everything.

During the time of silence, Bucky and Natasha would even avoid each other when they could. She'd be in the breakroom; when he walked into it, she'd immediately drop everything and leave. They'd walk in opposite directions toward each other, and when they saw each other, they would turn around and take a longer way to get to where they needed to be. But Bruce (Banner, not Wayne) noticed that during this time, Bucky stopped flirting with other women. The inclusion of Bruce Wayne in Natasha Romanoff's life required all of Bucky Barnes' energy.

Ten days rolled by, and the two resident hotheads finally collided and dealt with the unexpected variable of Bruce Wayne in their lives.

The agents were standing outside of their offices, watching the commotion unfolding in the first floor. Clint Barton found his friend standing close to the railing on the second floor. "Aamir, what the hell?"

"Shit's going down," Aamir from I.T. remarked, clutching a bag of movie snacks. "Popcorn?"

With nothing else to do, Clint took Aamir's bag of popcorn and grabbed a handful of the snack. Another agent shot him a look, and Clint passed the popcorn around to the other agents. Agent Phil Coulson walked up to them and asked what was going on, and Clint explained honestly. "You're not going to tell Fury, are you?"

Phil Coulson gave him a grin as he took the bag of popcorn from Paul and Stanley from Accounting. "Tell him about what?"

Back on the first floor, Natasha had her back turned to Steve and Bucky. She was yelling at Steve to "_do something!" _and Steve was trying to talk to Bucky. "Bucky, don't do this," Steve warned seriously, grabbing the other man on the shoulder.

"Nat," Bucky broke free of Steve's grip and touched Natasha's shoulder as she was walking away. "I need you to answer something."

Natasha whirled around, glaring at Bucky. "What?" she snarled. Steve immediately backed off, keeping his distance.

Bucky hesitated. He finally admitted vulnerably, "I just want to know what you see in Bruce -"

Natasha crossed her arms and looked at Bucky. "Who I date is none of your business, James Buchanan Barnes."

The Avengers and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents ate their popcorn quietly, not wanting to say anything to ruin the mood. Paul from Accounting commented quietly, "Oh no. She just used his full name. That's bad." He and Martha quickly entered some data into a program on a portable device.

"What the hell are you doing?" Clint asked the two accountants, even though he knew the answer already.

"We're calculating the probability that this will end well," they chorused.

Before Paul and Martha could finish their calculations, there was a scream, and all eyes turned back to the dueling hotheads.

"I'm just curious, okay?!" Bucky retorted angrily. He put both hands on Natasha's shoulders, trying to get her to look at him directly. He said something else in gentle Russian. It was too quiet for Clint to understand what he said. Natasha seemed to know what Bucky really wanted to know about her current relationship, and the fire in her angry eyes seemed to die down for a minute. She seemed to be deciding something.

"I know she's dating Bruce Wayne," an agent muttered, clutching her hands to her chest, "but please tell me they're going to kiss?" Maybe, just maybe, the ongoing office crisis had finally been defused.

Instead, Natasha started yelling at Bucky in full Russian. Agent Coulson, anticipating danger, immediately dragged Bob the Janitor with him so that they could move Lola, his treasured Corvette, into a safer location. The agents, who had stopped caring a long time ago that they were slacking off, heard Bucky respond back in surprised Portuguese, and it was a volley of Portuguese and Russian for the next ten minutes. Natasha blurted some passionate Italian, and Bucky, his face red from embarrassment, responded back in kind. The conversation was moving too fast for the agents' translator devices to pick up on what was said. It was just like the Foreign Languages Department to be out on foreign diplomatic missions at such a crucial time. Bucky and Natasha were switching between multiple languages so naturally that Clint wondered if they even knew they were doing that. They agents heard Bucky try to calm down Natasha in romantic French, using her real name, "Natalia." A pause.

"If I might add something?" English.

All eyes moved toward the source of that question, Happy Hogan, Tony's personal bodyguard. What in the world was he doing here? They remembered that Tony Stark was away on business for Stark Industries. Maybe the man had sent Happy here, but for what? Anyway, he seemed to keep up with Bucky and Natasha's conversation just fine. Everyone waited with bated breath for his reply.

Happy, realizing that he'd walked himself into a trap, cleared his throat and courageously said, "So at one point I saw her changing clothes in the backseat of my car. Long story." He paused, his face turning pale like a man preparing for an execution. "I have to side with Natasha on this, because with her body there was no way in hell she was going to be a frigid bitch forever."

Bucky's jaw dropped and Natasha facepalmed. Stanley from Accounting dramatically appeared from a dark corner in the first floor and screamed pathetically, "No, what are you doing?!" while tackling the bodyguard to the floor like a professional American football player. He carried the shocked bodyguard off to safety.

Then Bucky turned to Natasha and it was angry Russian for forty seven minutes straight. The agents saw a gleam of something shiny flying out of Natasha's leg and wondered what it was. It seemed to make Bucky's face bleed.

Suddenly it all made sense to Aamir. "Uh-oh! _That's_ what code red would look like!" He immediately whipped out his phone and texted a new alert while Research & Development made a mad dash for some of their expensive equipment still resting on the first floor.

"They're going to rip holes in the fabric of time!" "They're going to summon the Cithuari!" "Hurry! We have to move everything out!" "I didn't factor Bucky and Natasha killing each other into our calculations!"

Bucky and Natasha were leaping at each other angrily, their knives ready and jumping off columns and railings. They kicked and punched and hit each other without caring what damage it would do to the S.H.I.E.L.D. building. While Natasha actually pulled out a gun and tried to shoot Bucky in the leg, the other agents ran past her, accounting for all the machine and equipment. Clint saw that Steve didn't try to intervene, either. He only stood aside and watched them patiently, like a mother finally letting her two children do whatever it was they wanted to do.

Even though Bucky and Natasha would never understand the true meaning behind the S.H.I.E.L.D. holiday in the future, the day when the two almost ripped open holes in time was forever commemorated by the other agents as "Code Red Day."


	6. I'm Sorry I Tried to Kill You

Steve ended up using his shield to subdue Bucky and Natasha and dragged them through the catastrophe to the medical wing. (Miraculously, Director Nick Fury never caught wind of Bucky and Natasha's little skirmish, but the Accounting department had a hell of a time trying to keep track of all the expenses that quarter and the clean-up crew had to work overtime.) They protested that their injuries were minor, but Steve only glared at them and shoved them into a medical room to wait for the attending doctor to, well, attend to them.

Steve's last instructions before he slammed the door and left: "Figure this out. Now."

And for the first time in their lives, Bucky and Natasha were stuck together in the same room. They waited for a long time for the doctor and doubted he would actually show up. Besides, they were able to bandage their wounds on their own and that's exactly what they did. Finally:

"It's your fault Steve put us in here."  
"What are you talking about? You started it."

What were they really going to do in that room anyway? Bucky considered this. Having sex in the medical room would be pretty adventurous and fun and something he definitely wasn't new to, but the girl in question was Natasha. For a second there he pictured Natasha naked and wondered what she'd feel like pressed against him, but then he remembered that if he so much as suggested sex to her, she'd most likely stab him to death with the menacing box of sterile needles he saw sitting on a counter in the room. He shuddered; he wasn't ready to die yet. Besides, she was seeing Bruce Wayne.

And there it was again: the reality that she was seeing Bruce Wayne. As he tried to deal with this reality without showing Natasha that he was trying to deal with it, Bucky watched Natasha reach for a couple of the magazines on the counter and begin to read the first one. He noticed the cover; this was the one about Natasha's outfits. She was flipping through the pages, expressionless. She finally asked him, "Is there anything at all this week that isn't about me?"

Bucky shrugged. He reminded her that she was dating one of the "Party Princes of the U.S.A."

"You read this stuff too?" She asked him incredulously.

He told her that it wasn't his fault her pictures were everywhere and inadvertently mentioned that the paparazzi had had their eye on her for quite some time. "You and I both know that you're no average gal," he remarked nonchalantly, and Natasha looked at him again with that expression that everyone else but Bucky recognized as that face she had on when she was trying to decide something.

Natasha chose to continue reading because there was nothing else to do and she sure had no idea how to "figure this out" with Bucky anyway. She didn't want to think about that. She moved on to the next magazine, and Bucky looked at the cover. Oof…that would be one of the really bad ones that were calling her all kinds of names and claiming that she was a golddigger.

"Tch."

Bucky recognized that sound. It was the clicking sound she first made with her tongue when he argued with her about their differences in fighting style. It was the sound of someone who didn't believe what she was hearing. He mucked up the courage to ask her what was going on.

"Did you see this?" Natasha moved closer to Bucky to show the article and he had to tell himself not to focus on how attractive she was with her hair down. "They think I starved myself for years just to be with Bruce." She shook her head in disbelief. "And they think I'm doing it for the money." As much as Bucky had complained that Bruce Wayne had "loads of money to blow," he knew Natasha well enough to know that she wasn't doing it for that. If she was with Bruce, there was a good reason for it. He just couldn't figure out what it was.

"Er…" Bucky wasn't sure if he wanted to ask the next question, but he did anyway. "How did you meet him?"

"I knew him casually when I was undercover as Tony's secretary," she began, "but Sam and I" she was referring to fellow Avenger Sam Wilson "were on a mission in Gotham awhile back trying to deal with this crazy guy who was planning to use fear toxin and…" She paused. "We ran into him while he was spelunking." She said spelunking like it belonged in quotes.

"Spelunking?"

"Yeah. Spelunking."

Bucky was pretty sure that there was more to the story, but he wasn't interested in finding out more.

"He acts like a playboy," Natasha described Bruce Wayne, "but he has a pretty strong sense of justice. And he cares about people close to him." She looked at Bucky as if she was waiting for him to do something.

When Bucky didn't respond, Natasha continued. "Still, I can't believe the stuff they're saying about me." She said this quietly, but Bucky knew from the way she said it that if she weren't working for S.H.I.E.L.D., she would have found the writer and tortured him or her until he or she wrote another article to Natasha's liking. Bucky sensed that Natasha was having a tough time adjusting to her newfound fame as "Bruce Wayne's arm candy."

She sighed. "Bucky," the way she said his name so helplessly made his heart beat faster, "you know I'm not in it for the money, right?" Her anxious tone made it sound to Bucky as if she genuinely cared about what he thought of her, but he dismissed that idea.

After all, Natasha still had no idea that Bucky might be slightly interested in her. Still, he responded truthfully. "You attract a certain kind of guy," he explained to her, and the next words almost hurt him as much as one of Natasha's knives did, "and he just happens to be Bruce Wayne." He decided it wasn't the best time to mention that he was also one of those guys. Bucky added for good measure, "Those shitheads don't know what they're talking about. You're a tough gal; you're not the kind of person to wait around for the right guy, and the right guy came for you. And starving yourself? I've seen you eat."

Natasha laughed. It was true; she ate as much as Bucky or Steve did. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said about me since…since Russia." And then there was that odd look of hers again that Bucky couldn't quite figure out.

"For what it's worth," Bucky remarked, "no one should be picking a fight with you anyway. Except me."

Natasha laughed at this too.

Another pause. There were so many of them today.

"For what it's worth," she apologized, "I'm sorry I tried to kill you."


	7. Break-Making Lemons Out of Lemonade

Three men wearing business suits marched into the interrogation room, setting their respective folders on the table. One of them nervously tapped away at his calculator. The second man had dark hair, a beard and a serious expression. The other man was wearing an earpiece and a mysterious smile. He tapped his earpiece so that it shut down.

"Sirs," the man with the calculator began, "Welcome. I am glad you could make it."

They mumbled their agreement.

The man with the calculator introduced himself as Paul from Accounting and immediately got down to business.

"You're aware of recent events?"

The other two men nodded.

"Happy took one for the team by accident," the man with the beard said. "I just sent him there to gather intel, because I was out on business. I had no idea he was going to say that."

"Sir," Paul turned to the man with the earpiece, "I'm glad you were able to rescue Lola."

"Thank you, Paul." The man glanced around at everyone. "The inclusion of Bruce Wayne is an unexpected variable."

"Not for me," the other man replied. "I know Bruce. I grew up with him."

"Of course it's not surprising for you," the man with the earpiece, "but we didn't ban you. Look at all the resources at our fingertips! Everything is fair game. Just because you have inside information doesn't mean you'll win."

"Bob has been dead on about his predictions thus far. He's the one everyone should watch out for."

"But what do we do about Bruce Wayne, sirs?" Paul from Accounting asked curiously. "This throws a wrench into our plans!"

"No, it doesn't," the man who knew Bruce Wayne replied. "We can up the stakes." The man who owned Lola agreed.

"Agent Coulson," Paul asked, "what should I tell them?"

"Tell them…tell them we're giving bonus points to anyone who actually predicted that Bruce Wayne would show up, and to re-submit answers to this week's question by Friday."

"And that everyone should put in more money." The man wrote down an undisclosed amount that each agent should add to the pool. "Paul, don't tell Steve. He's not participating and he doesn't want to know what we're doing."

"He didn't want to participate the first time we asked him. Even if we ask him again, he'll say no."

It went without saying that no one would text Bucky and Natasha, the main topic of the three men's discussion. Or Director Nick Fury, who was worried enough about productivity numbers.


	8. Gathering Intel Pt 1 Natasha

In the two months after Code Red Day, the dynamic between Bucky and Natasha changed. The intermittent arguing that all of the agents were used to had suddenly changed. The silence wasn't the calm before the storm type of silence. It was just…

Quiet.

Even Aamir wasn't used to the fact that Bucky and Natasha had stopped arguing for so long without any outside intervention.

Something happened after Steve had shoved Bucky and Natasha into the same room together. Bucky was trying extremely hard to stay on Natasha's good graces. They were actually cooperating for once and not disagreeing and fighting over the little things. Because of that, Director Nick Fury began to send them on missions together. During one such mission, Bucky stopped criticizing Natasha for dancing while she fought and even complimented her for the grace with which she dispatched a soldier, and in return, Natasha would even give him some weapons she'd found on the unconscious body. But there was an awkwardness between them, the Avengers thought, as if Bucky and Natasha had no idea what to do with this sudden change in dynamic between them. The agents and the employees didn't know what to do either; not even Bob the Janitor had predicted this outcome for the office pool that Tony Stark and Phil Coulson were hosting.

"What did you do?" Bruce (Banner) asked Steve curiously. "They stopped fighting!"  
"Nothing," Steve looked back at Bruce and the rest of the Avengers. "I thought this was what you all wanted anyway?"

That was the problem with wishing.

Sometimes things didn't end up the way you wanted it to.

The silence was uncomfortable enough that the Avengers decided to form a clandestine get-together and pick straws to see who would go talk to Bucky and Natasha individually and see if something had developed between them (despite the fact that, for all they knew, Natasha was still seeing Bruce Wayne). It was decided that Steve, being Bucky's best friend, would be sent off to talk to Bucky ("Seriously, everyone? I would have done that anyway," said Steve) but that Tony would have to sit this one out.

"Wait a minute," Tony began, "I've known Bruce since childhood, why can't I go talk to Natasha?"

"Conflict of interest."

Tony noted the hypocrisy of the agents' decision to send someone else to talk to Natasha but to send Steve to talk to Bucky ("wouldn't Steve be just as biased as I am?"), but let them do whatever they wanted. He saw the bigger picture: barring his personal thoughts on his childhood friend dating Natasha (he was happy for the two), Tony was working with Agent Coulson to organize the ongoing office pool betting when Bucky and Natasha would finally get together (if at all). And that was very fun.

As for everyone else, the person who picked the shortest straw would be sent off to talk to Natasha and find out what was going on with her. Unfortunately, Clint Barton got the shortest straw, and he solemnly walked off to his doom. Natasha was not the kind of person to reveal secrets, and he was sure that there would be sacrifices on his end to pull those secrets out from her.

While he was looking for Natasha, Clint ran into Aamir from I.T., who was walking around the halls listening to his portable music player. "Where are you going, Clint?"

"To my death," Clint simply responded. Death was code for 'please help me, Nat is going to kill me.'

"Maybe a quirky I.T. sidekick could help smooth things over?" Aamir offered, picking up on the hint.

"Or make things worse," Clint said, but he didn't mind having the emotional support. "Come on. Let's go find Nat."

When they found Natasha, Clint and Aamir were walking in the courtyards of the S.H.I.E.L.D. building. She was sitting quietly at one of the tables outside, eating lunch. Aamir blinked and pointed out the man sitting next to her.

"Is that…?"

Clint looked too. The man sitting next to Natasha was indeed Bucky. They were actually able to sit in the same table together without fighting? Bucky had said something, and she suddenly started smiling! The usually stoic Natasha…with a smile?

"Are they…?"

Clint wasn't sure anymore. After Natasha had returned from the Bahamas, there'd been more reports that she'd spent some time at Bruce's and gone paragliding or windsurfing with him one weekend. "Maybe they're just friends."

"Friends? Those two?"

As they walked toward Natasha and Bucky, they saw Steve get to the two first and tap Bucky on the shoulder. Bucky got up to leave (more like, was dragged by the arm), but not without looking behind his shoulder at Natasha, who only shrugged and nodded.

And Clint and Aamir cautiously approached her.

"Can we sit here?" Clint spoke first.

Natasha was in an unusually good mood. She actually nodded. Clint introduced her to Aamir from I.T., and they sat down on either side of Natasha. Thankfully Aamir had brought some snacks and shared this with the other two seated at the table. It was a good lead-in to the conversation they wanted to have with Natasha. They started chatting about missions and Halloween. She was in such a good mood that she accidentally let slip that Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark's annual holiday party would take place at Wayne Manor this time and that the Avengers were invited.

"Even Bucky?" Aamir asked with as much innocent, geeky curiosity as he could muster.

Natasha looked at him, surprised, but then remembered that it was public knowledge in S.H.I.E.L.D. that she and Bucky would _occasionally_ fight. She didn't respond to that and laughed. "And of course everyone from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s invited. The more the merrier. So you should come too, Aamir."

Clint and Aamir looked at each other. Okay, so Natasha was still seeing Bruce.

Clint: "You guys nearly destroyed the S.H.I.E.L.D. building and Bucky is going to a party _you're _going to."

Natasha nodded. "I asked him to come."

Clint and Aamir looked at each other again. _What the fuck?_

Natasha noticed that look and quickly explained herself. "Ever since she found out I was seeing Bruce, Darcy's been _begging_ to go to one of his parties." She was referring to Darcy Lewis, a friend of Thor's and Natasha's. "I figured since the Avengers were invited…and Bucky said he wanted to go, so…" Natasha let Clint and Aamir figure out the rest by themselves.

Clint and Aamir couldn't figure out if Natasha only paired Bucky with Darcy because she knew that Darcy wasn't a threat. Darcy was a pretty girl, sure, but she was the rarest of women: single, disinterested in Bucky, and completely immune to his charms.

Natasha smiled. Her next words erased any hint that she'd had any drama with Bucky in the last year or two.

"Don't worry! Nothing's going to happen. Bucky and I are _just friends._"


	9. Gathering Intel Pt 2 Bucky

In the two months after Code Red Day, the dynamic between Bucky and Natasha changed. The intermittent arguing that all of the agents were used to had suddenly changed. The silence wasn't the calm before the storm type of silence. It was just…

Quiet.

Even Aamir wasn't used to the fact that Bucky and Natasha had stopped arguing for so long without any outside intervention.

Something happened after Steve had shoved Bucky and Natasha into the same room together. Bucky was trying extremely hard to stay on Natasha's good graces. They were actually cooperating for once and not disagreeing and fighting over the little things. Because of that, Director Nick Fury began to send them on missions together. During one such mission, Bucky stopped criticizing Natasha for dancing while she fought and even complimented her for the grace with which she dispatched a soldier, and in return, Natasha would even give him some weapons she'd found on the unconscious body. But there was an awkwardness between them, the Avengers thought, as if Bucky and Natasha had no idea what to do with this sudden change in dynamic between them. The agents and the employees didn't know what to do either; not even Bob the Janitor had predicted this outcome for the office pool that Tony Stark and Phil Coulson were hosting.

"What did you do?" Bruce (Banner) asked Steve curiously. "They stopped fighting!"  
"Nothing," Steve looked back at Bruce and the rest of the Avengers. "I thought this was what you all wanted anyway?"

That was the problem with wishing.

Sometimes things didn't end up the way you wanted it to.

The silence was uncomfortable enough that the Avengers decided to form a clandestine get-together and pick straws to see who would go talk to Bucky and Natasha individually and see if something had developed between them (despite the fact that, for all they knew, Natasha was still seeing Bruce Wayne). It was decided that Steve, being Bucky's best friend, would be sent off to talk to Bucky ("Seriously, everyone? I would have done that anyway," said Steve) but that Tony would have to sit this one out.

"Wait a minute," Tony began, "I've known Bruce since childhood, why can't I go talk to Natasha?"

"Conflict of interest."

Tony noted the hypocrisy of the agents' decision to send someone else to talk to Natasha but to send Steve to talk to Bucky ("wouldn't Steve be just as biased as I am?"), but let them do whatever they wanted. He saw the bigger picture: barring his personal thoughts on his childhood friend dating Natasha (he was happy for the two), Tony was working with Agent Coulson to organize the ongoing office pool betting when Bucky and Natasha would finally get together (if at all). And that was very fun.

As for everyone else, the person who picked the shortest straw would be sent off to talk to Natasha and find out what was going on with her. Unfortunately, Clint Barton got the shortest straw, and he solemnly walked off to his doom. Natasha was not the kind of person to reveal secrets, and he was sure that there would be sacrifices on his end to pull those secrets out from her.

While he was looking for Natasha, Clint ran into Aamir from I.T., who was walking around the halls listening to his portable music player. "Where are you going, Clint?"

"To my death," Clint simply responded. Death was code for 'please help me, Nat is going to kill me.'

"Maybe a quirky I.T. sidekick could help smooth things over?" Aamir offered, picking up on the hint.

"Or make things worse," Clint said, but he didn't mind having the emotional support. "Come on. Let's go find Nat."

When they found Natasha, Clint and Aamir were walking in the courtyards of the S.H.I.E.L.D. building. She was sitting quietly at one of the tables outside, eating lunch. Aamir blinked and pointed out the man sitting next to her.

"Is that…?"

Clint looked too. The man sitting next to Natasha was indeed Bucky. They were actually able to sit in the same table together without fighting? Bucky had said something, and she suddenly started smiling! The usually stoic Natasha…with a smile?

"Are they…?"

Clint wasn't sure anymore. After Natasha had returned from the Bahamas, there'd been more reports that she'd spent some time at Bruce's and gone paragliding or windsurfing with him one weekend. "Maybe they're just friends."

"Friends? Those two?"

As they walked toward Natasha and Bucky, they saw Steve get to the two first and tap Bucky on the shoulder. Bucky got up to leave (more like, was dragged by the arm), but not without looking behind his shoulder at Natasha, who only shrugged and nodded.

And Clint and Aamir cautiously approached her.

"Can we sit here?" Clint spoke first.

Natasha was in an unusually good mood. She actually nodded. Clint introduced her to Aamir from I.T., and they sat down on either side of Natasha. Thankfully Aamir had brought some snacks and shared this with the other two seated at the table. It was a good lead-in to the conversation they wanted to have with Natasha. They started chatting about missions and Halloween. She was in such a good mood that she accidentally let slip that Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark's annual holiday party would take place at Wayne Manor this time and that the Avengers were invited.

"Even Bucky?" Aamir asked with as much innocent, geeky curiosity as he could muster.

Natasha looked at him, surprised, but then remembered that it was public knowledge in S.H.I.E.L.D. that she and Bucky would _occasionally_ fight. She didn't respond to that and laughed. "And of course everyone from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s invited. The more the merrier. So you should come too, Aamir."

Clint and Aamir looked at each other. Okay, so Natasha was still seeing Bruce.

Clint: "You guys nearly destroyed the S.H.I.E.L.D. building and Bucky is going to a party _you're _going to."

Natasha nodded. "I asked him to come."

Clint and Aamir looked at each other again. _What the fuck?_

Natasha noticed that look and quickly explained herself. "Ever since she found out I was seeing Bruce, Darcy's been _begging_ to go to one of his parties." She was referring to Darcy Lewis, a friend of Thor's and Natasha's. "I figured since the Avengers were invited…and Bucky said he wanted to go, so…" Natasha let Clint and Aamir figure out the rest by themselves.

Clint and Aamir couldn't figure out if Natasha only paired Bucky with Darcy because she knew that Darcy wasn't a threat. Darcy was a pretty girl, sure, but she was the rarest of women: single, disinterested in Bucky, and completely immune to his charms.

Natasha smiled. Her next words erased any hint that she'd had any drama with Bucky in the last year or two.

"Don't worry! Nothing's going to happen. Bucky and I are _just friends._"


	10. Because PIRATES! And ASSASSINS!

Wayne Manor's official invitation to Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne's annual Halloween party arrived at the desks of every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent the next morning. The invitation was written on what could only be described as "fancy paper" with the following words:

Anthony Stark & Bruce Wayne  
The Spoiled Party Princes

cordially invite you to our annual Halloween Costume Party and Movie/Music Festival

beginning

October 28, 2013

Noon

until

October 31, 2013 11:59pm

In the corner was written the official theme of the party: PIRATES. Included with the invitation was a single golden mask specifically designed and carefully crafted so that it would be difficult to create a fake one.

Anyhow, Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne were milking that name for everything it was worth. It was well-known that the two would hold as many parties as they could each year (barring Tony's side job as Iron Man and Bruce Wayne's mysterious 'spelunking' activities) and that the two _always_ hosted the Halloween Costume Party together. This year it was Bruce Wayne's turn to hold the party at his house. Rumor also had it that their younger Party-Princes-in-training, Oliver Queen of Queen Industries and Tommy Merlyn of Merlyn Global Group, were helping to plan party festivities for the first time. Reports predicted that this meant up and coming bands and DJs would be playing and that members of Young Hollywood would be making their first appearance at the festival.

And naturally, Natasha received that invitation with bright tulips the color of fire and a large Halloween basket of goodies.

But more importantly for the I.T. Department: PIRATES! Swashbuckling pirates!

They were originally going to hold their own party celebrating the release of the video game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, but if Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark and their party protégées were planning to host a seafaring Halloween party lasting for three and a half days, guess what they were doing instead? Besides, they could liberally interpret 'pirate theme' to include characters from both Assassin's Creed and an anime called One Piece so that the costumes they'd prepared way ahead of time for a completely different event would not be wasted.

"But how would Assassins or Templars fit into the pirate theme?" Clint asked. He wasn't familiar with the Assassin's Creed series.

Aamir looked at Clint as if he should know better and promptly informed him that the conflict between Assassins and Templars had been going on for centuries.

"I think we can incorporate Assassins and Templars and the Animi Avatars into a pirate-themed party just fine." He turned to look at Clint critically. "And what would _you_ be going as?"

Clint redirected the question. "Depends on what you're going as."

Aamir grinned. "Well if it was just I.T., I would have gone as Blackbeard," this was Blackbeard of Assassin's Creed, not One Piece "but if we're going to Wayne Manor and we're very liberally interpreting the pirate theme…Stanley from Accounting is trying to put together a Straw Hat crew, so I guess I'll be going as Roronoa Zoro instead. I can always save the Blackbeard costume for the next gaming convention." He looked at Clint. "I know you've never cosplayed in your life, but you think you'd be up for joining the Straw Hat pirates?"

Anything for a friend, Clint sighed, even though he didn't know what all those names were. "And what would you want me to be?"

"You'd probably make a good Sanji. You have the right length of hair and I'm sure our S.H.I.E.L.D. publicist can help with styling. You happen to have an orange striped collared shirt with matching black vest, pants and tie?"

Clint said he happened to have an orange collared shirt with black tie.

"Great, we'll help you with the rest. You don't have to do a thing. Don't forget to bring a pack of cigarettes day of."

When Clint Barton told all of this to Steve Rogers later, Steve only howled with laughter. He could barely imagine Clint cosplaying as anything or anyone, much less doing that as part of a group.

"The I.T. department is very passionate," Clint explained. He suddenly remembered how, after he'd agreed to join the Straw Hats, the tech people had been talking secretly amongst themselves and refused to let him know what was going on. It dawned on Clint why they were doing that, but how did they find out that Bucky was planning to go to the party too? On a whim, he decided to ask Steve what Bucky was planning to do for Halloween.

"He said he might not go after all." Even though Steve had offered to go to the party as well, Bucky admitted to him that he wasn't ready to talk to both Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Wayne as two parts of a whole relationship.

"I'm not sure if that's going to work out for him," Clint warned Steve.

Because the I.T. Department was involved in Tony Stark and Phil Coulson's bet as well, they had been scheming about Bucky Barnes and somehow, it would involve Halloween.

Clint had no idea what they were going to do to the poor guy.


	11. James Auditore da FirenzeJames Kenway?

"Hi Bucky."

"Darcy! Are you looking for Nat? She's not here right now, she's on a mission."

"I just wanted to say thank you for letting me tag along with you to the Halloween party."

"Oh, about that-"

And it was at that point that a member of the I.T. Department tackled Bucky down, dragged him off and motioned for Darcy Lewis to come with them.

"Guys, what's going on?" Darcy was also perplexed.

"We're going to create the perfect costume for you, Agent Barnes."

Bucky knew what they were talking about. "But I'm not going." Darcy, hearing this, glared at him and wanted to ask him why he didn't say anything sooner, but the I.T. agent interrupted them.

"That's exactly what we heard, and we wanted to stage an intervention." At this, Darcy laughed out loud, forgetting that she was mad at Bucky.

"How did you find out I wasn't-"

The agent simply said that I.T. had eyes everywhere and asked, "Do you like Agent Romanoff or not?"

"Yes, it's just-" He suddenly realized that he was saying that in front of Darcy and looked at her nervously. She only grinned right back at him. She was amused.

"Then…" the agent paused, trying to find the right words as Darcy laughed at his interest in Bucky's love life. The agent wanted to go for romantic, but he took one look at Bucky's grumpy face and decided that was a bad idea. "You don't need to do anything more. You're in good hands."

Bucky got dragged into a corner in the I.T. Department that he never knew existed. There were workspaces with sewing machines and cloth strewn about. He saw a pile of shoes neatly arranged on a shelf from the wall. Before he could say anything, the agents swarmed over him and Darcy like little ants and began fussing over them.

"Miss Lewis," one agent motioned for her to go to a room created specifically for fittings. Darcy told Bucky not to worry; she was just getting a final fitting for her costume and would be back soon.

Then she disappeared, leaving Bucky at the mercy of the rest of the I.T. Department.

"Hold still," one agent warned him, and a swarm of agents began taking his measurements.

"It's like you guys are veterans at this…"

One of the tech guys shushed him, explaining that this was an exhaustive process that would normally take months to perfect but they only had a couple of weeks left. Something about the Stark/Wayne Halloween party and how everyone needed to bump up everything in their schedule to make time for outfitting Bucky and how they needed caffeine. Lots of caffeine.

He saw Darcy walk out of the fitting room, examining herself appreciatively in front of the mirror, but he was too distracted by the hustle and bustle of the I.T. Department to notice what she was wearing. Two agents were observing him intently and sketching on their notepads. He started to tilt his head to try to see what they were drawing, but the agent taking his measurements said, "Excuse me, sir?" and instructed him not to move, or they'd have to start all over again.

"Darcy," Bucky called out, even though an agent tried to shush him again, "what are they doing to me?"

Darcy walked closer to him to see how he was doing and chuckled because she had to go through the same thing the last time she was here. "How are you faring, Bucky?" she asked, trying to stifle her laughter.

"As best as I can," Bucky awkwardly answered back.

Darcy explained that she'd heard about the I.T. Department's lesser known expertise in clothing design and she'd reached out to them as soon as Natasha had told her about the Stark/Wayne Halloween party. She had been stopping by for a final fitting. Clearly the Department also had plans for Bucky which could only work if he attended the Stark/Wayne party. Bucky groaned; Steve had warned him about this, but he didn't believe it until it was too late.

Darcy twirled around. "How do I look?"

Bucky finally had a chance to look at the costume that Darcy was wearing (if only because he couldn't do anything else). The dress was a mix of red and gold with short poofy sleeves and underneath the dress was a long-sleeved white garment. Tied around Darcy's waist was a giant red cloth. Bucky thought she looked like a noblewoman. Maybe from the medieval times? He couldn't tell.

"Who does I.T. want you go to go as?"

"That depends on who's asking." Darcy said that the I.T. people believed she would make a great 'Claudia,' whoever that was, and she went with it because she trusted their skills. And the outfit looked like it would blend in with the pirate theme just fine as far as she could tell. (Even if it didn't work, she'd make it work; it looked great.) Anyway, it wasn't her final look, as the I.T. people still needed to give her a headpiece to wear and the publicist would be doing her makeup the day of the event. Her eyes turned toward the agents with the notepads, and Bucky looked with her.

The agents were now sharing their initial designs of Bucky's costume with everyone else and suddenly the conversation became heated.

"He'd make a fairly good-looking Ezio."

"_Fairly_ good looking? Did you never see the women swooning all over him when he made his public debut?"

"I agree, good-looking is the understatement of the year."

Bucky was uncomfortable listening to the agents' conversation. They were treating him like he wasn't in the room at all. But he conceded that Natasha had been right about the women hanging all over him.

The agents examined the two notepads. "If he makes such a great Ezio, are we going with mostly white or the ones from his later years?" Another agent hastily drew a third design on his notepad.

"His hair's too long. We'd have to cut it."

"No, it's just the right length for either one."

Either one? Bucky wondered who they were trying to make him look like. He heard the word 'assassin' and things sort of began to make sense to him (not really). Clearly the I.T. Department was just looking for any excuse to have Bucky dress like an assassin of some kind; after all, he'd been the Winter Soldier before the Avengers found him. Suddenly someone decided it'd make more sense for Bucky to be an Edward Kenway.

"…but only if he dyes his hair blonde."

At this, Bucky immediately spoke up. "I'd rather not."

The agents turned to look at him. "What about a wig?"

"No. _No._"

The agents returned to their huddle and continued discussing the problem of costuming Bucky Barnes.

"You think he knows how to use a flintlock pistol?"

"I don't know. Maybe he knows how to use swords. He's good with knives." Bucky reflected; he had used swords on a mission as the Winter Soldier once.

"We should have asked Agent Rogers to be Edward Kenway."

"No. His hair's too short."

"Does it matter?"

"Yes, yes it does! It's _important._"

"We can ask him right now?"

"No, there's not enough time, we have to stick with the plan."

"Let Agent Barnes decide what he wants to do." 'Agent Barnes,' as they were calling him, would have chosen not to go to the party, but the I.T. people were determined to have him show up. So he didn't say anything. "We can figure out the rest."

The group of agents grabbed the three notepads that they were examining and shoved them into Bucky's hands. "Choose one."

So Bucky looked at the two designs with Darcy peeking over his shoulder. The first one was mostly white and revealed retractable blades on each wrist. He liked the way the cape draped over the left shoulder; if he chose this one, his metallic arm wouldn't stand out as much. The second design was pretty cool too. There were a lot of places where he could store his pistols and knives. It was also darker, meaning he wouldn't stand out. Not that he needed to worry about that, since he was only going to a party, but you just never knew. The third one looked mostly like the first, but in black and with fur draped over its left side. He wasn't sure if he liked this one as much as the other two. The black of it reminded him a little too much of his Winter Soldier outfit.

So he picked one of the designs and watched the agents return to their huddle and talk seriously amongst themselves.

One agent turned to him and Darcy. "Thank you, Agent Barnes," he said. "Miss Lewis. That's all we'll need from you for now.

"Agent Barnes, we'll contact you again if we need anything else. Otherwise, we'll let you know when to come in for a fitting."


	12. Brk Avengers of a Feather Flock 2gether

"Alright," Darcy said to Bucky, "Nat's not here so I better get going. Remember, you let me know when your next fitting is, I want to be there for it.

"Oh and tell Nat I said hi." Somehow, Bucky thought, Darcy figured out that this was okay for him to do.

"Yeah, sure."

As Darcy left, another voice called out to Bucky. "Hey, Bucky, what are you doing in this neck of the woods? You never visit I.T." It was Aamir from I.T. He was walking toward the I.T. Department right as Bucky and Darcy had been walking out of it.

Bucky agreed, "Yeah, I don't." He explained that he'd gotten tackled down and dragged into their secret room.

He really should have expected Aamir's reaction, but he didn't: "They actually got _you_ to agree to let them design something for you?!" Aamir shook his head. "I told them you wouldn't do it!" Aamir grumbled something about owing David some money.

"They didn't listen to me." Bucky added that one particularly intrepid I.T. guy managed to tackle him down because he'd been caught by surprise.

Aamir let out a loud 'HAH!' before he caught himself. "Look, uh…"

"Call me Bucky." He did not want to hear another 'Agent Barnes' today.

"Bucky…these guys are my bros. You have to trust me, you're in good hands. I know you hate it but…they'll make the best possible outfit for you."

"I better be in good hands." Bucky gave his best death glare to Aamir. He blamed the I.T. Department for making him go to the Stark/Wayne party, but he would never admit in the future that he was grateful that they did.

Bucky texted Natasha to see if she'd returned from her mission, and she told him to wait for her in the courtyard. She had just gotten back and would meet him after Fury's debrief. By the time she'd met him, he had finished eating his lunch, but he continued to sit there with her anyway.

"Darcy was just texting me about you," she smiled. She sort of knew that the I.T. Department had plans for Bucky, but she didn't know what the details were.

"The part where the I.T. guys swarm over me like flies?"

Natasha chuckled. "Look, once you get to know them, they're perfectly harmless."

He rolled his eyes. "That's what Aamir told me. If you ask me, one I.T. guy is enough."

"So…you _are_ still going to the party at Wayne Manor, right?"

Bucky decided not to mention how he'd decided _not_ to go and only nodded yes.

She was relieved; it would be good to at least know one person at the party and not be the odd woman out. He assured Natasha that she would never be awkward at this party or in any other event. She shone above the rest even if she wasn't some heiress or socialite. It should be enough that she was an Avenger who had helped save New York City and the rest of the world from an alien invasion.

"So what are you going as, Bucky?"

"I couldn't even tell you."

She smiled. "Well I'm sure whatever it is, it'll be great."

The words almost made Bucky melt right there on the table, but then he was rudely interrupted by Clint and Aamir from I.T. before he could inadvertently profess his love for Natasha or ask her more about Bruce Wayne and at least make sure that the billionaire was a good guy. Clint was wearing a bright orange collared shirt, black vest and jeans, and Natasha roared with laughter. The Clint she knew rarely wore orange. And what was he doing out of uniform? "Explain yourself, Mr. Barton."

He grinned like a man reliving his childhood and explained. "I've always wanted to be a pirate since I was young!" Clint mentioned a name, 'Sanji,' while Aamir from I.T. sat next to Bucky and began to give the short version of the life of the Straw Hats from the anime One Piece and how Sanji fit into that. He added that Sanji was a great chef ("even though we all know Clint can't cook even if his life depended on it") and he tended to use his legs in fights ("so no arrows, Clint!" Aamir sternly instructed him).

"Anywho, Stanley from Accounting was getting a group together to rep the Straw Hats, and Clint was the last piece of the puzzle." Natasha made a joke at Clint while Aamir chided her for doing so, and she let out a laugh that Bucky had never heard before. Not even during their time in Russia. He wondered why he'd never really taken the time to see Natasha smile or hear her laugh since he'd joined the Avengers. Maybe it was because they had argued so much before. Did he simply take it for granted that she had a laughter and a smile?

Bucky was about to rectify that and tell Natasha that he'd never noticed until now that she had such a beautiful smile, but then Steve, Sharon, and Tony joined the crowd and sat in empty spots on Bucky and Natasha's table. Even Thor jumped down from the sky to join the Avengers, and Bucky didn't have a chance to talk to her again when she and Thor both realized that they knew Bruce Wayne: Thor had met the billionaire through someone named Kal-El and she had met him as Tony's secretary. Bucky wanted to say something else, but Tony joined in the conversation, talking about how it was such a small world. Aamir looked at Bucky sympathetically before passing around some snacks that he'd always carried with him.

Tony said something and then the other Avengers burst into laughter. The conversation steered toward the topic of the Stark/Wayne Halloween festival and what costumes each of the Avengers and Aamir would be wearing for the event. Bucky relented and finally let himself get swept away by the group discussion as he re-recounted the full story of how the I.T. Department was determined to design a costume for him. Aamir added some more details.

There was more laughter, more curious questions and in the moment all of the Avengers (and Aamir) simply enjoyed a fun lunch outside and looked forward to Halloween.


	13. Opening Ceremony

Without Natasha and Bucky's knowledge, the I.T. Department and Human Resources had tried to coordinate Bucky and Natasha's Halloween costumes with mixed results because neither Bucky nor Natasha would do anything they wanted. Bucky had chosen the Edward Kenway costume, but refused to dye his hair blonde or wear a wig, while Natasha had refused to wear any of the outfits that either of Edward Kenway's wives would have worn. She instead opted for a more form fitting and practical costume that would look great, be able to hold all of her knives, and wouldn't be hard to navigate around in. The I.T. Department thought they had failed in their mission, but in fact, the outfits they designed would play a small but crucial role in an incident that took place on the first day of the Stark/Wayne party. The incident highlighted the blatant chemistry between Bucky and Natasha, even though one would insist nothing existed and the other was head over heels in love with Bruce Wayne.

Bucky had not seen Natasha since the Avengers lunch. Bruce Wayne had made a surprise visit to the S.H.I.E.L.D. building, whisking Natasha away again. This was the first time he'd actually seen the billionaire in person. The man exuded an aura of maturity and confidence, but didn't flaunt his richness the way Tony sometimes did. Upon seeing Bruce Wayne, Natasha had squealed with delight and ran to him in a loving embrace. Through their kiss, it was painfully obvious that Natasha was deeply in love with Bruce Wayne, but Bucky kept his face expressionless so that no one else could know what he was thinking. He had to admit that Natasha was happy around Bruce Wayne in a way that she couldn't ever be with him.

However, that wasn't what he was worried about when he, Darcy, Steve, Clint, Sharon, and the Straw Hats left for the party around noon. Steve opted to go as himself, ie., Captain America, while Sharon dressed as an 18th century lady. Everyone wore their golden masks by the time they arrived at the front gate to Wayne Manor and were instructed by the valet to wear it for the whole event to heighten the mystery (and avoid being identified by nosy paparazzi). They walked along the long cobblestone path to the manor, surrounded by skulls and treasure chests and security dressed as pirates who would guide them along the way.

When the group finally reached the front door to the manor, they saw a series of large unlit Jack O'Lanterns and green vines and bright yellow sunflowers lining the entrance (a touch of Natasha, Bucky thought). The man whom Bucky recognized as the butler with the sunflowers formally welcomed them into the Manor.

"This place is gorgeous even in the day time!" Darcy breathed.

Their group began to explore the manor, taking pictures along the way, and stealthily snuck into the unauthorized areas. They avoided the grand ballroom where a lot of the celebrities and high-powered individuals were chatting. Caterers, servants and security hastily moved past them, preparing for the festival and getting food sent out. As they explored the manor, the group managed to find themselves outside where the gardeners were doing last minute adjustments to the landscape and some of the musicians were mentally getting ready for the nighttime festivities and doing soundchecks. The orchestra and the afternoon act for the day were playing outside right now, one deejay explained, to create a relaxed atmosphere. The other musicians were just hanging out for the main event that would take place at night. The gang invited a deejay and one of the bands to join them in their expedition, and they went back inside. They discovered the game room, open to all guests for the event, and hung out there until night, when the real party began.

All of the guests were ushered outside of Wayne Manor and Bucky noticed that the path to the entrance was now lined with ominous candles and that the Jack O'Lanterns had been lit. It was hard to see where they were going; a mist had fallen over the Manor. Aamir pointed; they saw in the distance the silhouette of a ghost ship tackling a Kraken. As they walked along, the group could hear the music of the sirens calling out to them and pirates carousing, juggling and dancing. When they entered the main stage outside where all the musical acts would be performing, a group of dancing women meant to represent mermaids parted, leaving a path for guests to pass through.

Another orchestra began to play background music onstage while the Spoiled Party Princes and their princes-in-training stood onstage to commence opening ceremonies, joking with each other and thanking everyone who helped out and all the guests who came. Bucky thought he saw Pepper Potts and Natasha Romanoff standing on the side of the stage.

"Drink up, everyone!" Tony got whapped on the head before he could add the 'yo-ho, yo-ho' bit.

Bursts of confetti flew into the air as servants appeared out of nowhere, offering both alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks and appetizers to each guest. After some time, the orchestra switched gears to provide the musical backdrop for the opening act and the pop singer they invited onstage to play some ska punk. The brass instruments and the saxophones used by the group reminded Bucky of big band music, but that was where the similarities ended. As soon as the guitarist and bassist played a chord, members of the audience formed a mosh pit at the center of the dance floor. Sharon immediately dragged Steve into the crowd and Bucky watched them disappear in the sea of people.

"Well don't just stand there!" Darcy laughed as she took Bucky and Clint by the hand, dragging them straight into the mosh pit, and Aamir and the Straw Hats followed them. They got lost in the sound of the brass and saxophones from the orchestra. Through the beats and the crowd of people, Bucky was searching the stage for Pepper Potts and Natasha Romanoff. All he could find were the Party Princes and their protégées standing to the side, going over something on a clipboard. The women had disappeared out of sight. As he was enjoying the music, he heard someone in the crowd calling out to him.

"Bucky! I can't believe you're here!"

Bucky and Darcy turned in the direction of the voice and saw someone with dark hair wearing a mask. Who was she? Bucky didn't know who was talking to him and responded generically, "Of course I am, the Avengers were invited." They resumed participating in the mosh pit, but the woman was undeterred.

"You don't recognize me?" The woman cooed. "It's me, Kat! Nice costume, by the way."

Bucky was still searching through the crowd for Natasha. "Hi, Kat," he mumbled, distracted.

Kat looked back at him indignantly but Darcy immediately ran intervention. "I think you've got the wrong person, ma'am" she said and motioned for the group to head to a different spot in the mosh pit, taking a preoccupied Bucky with her.

After a series of energy-pumping songs, the music stopped and Bucky and Darcy's group watched as two people got up on stage. There was some talking, and the man suddenly knelt down in front of the woman. The woman was shocked at first while the crowd egged her on to say yes, and then she broke into sobs and hugged the man. There were cheers and applause.

The singer onstage took the opportunity to play a slow love song written in the rhythm of a waltz and motioned for everyone to grab a partner. Darcy had taken Clint's hands while Aamir and the Straw Hats were either dancing in pairs or as part of a whole group.

Bucky saw Kat gliding toward him again but then he heard someone else asking him something.

"Would you like this dance?"

He turned around. The woman asking him was a petite redhead with a single braid falling from the side of her head. Her voice was familiar, but because her face was covered with the golden mask he couldn't quite place where he had heard it. Still, he didn't want to dance with Kat if he could avoid it, so he answered the woman.

"Sure."

Because Bucky had a habit of noticing details in women, especially those he'd met for the first time, he made sure to remember all the details about the woman. He liked the cherry red of her lips and the way her long silver earrings dangled from her ears and how her necklaces hung casually around her neck, clinking lightly as she moved. The length of her shirt, wrapped around the waist in a piece of dark red rope, was long enough that it resembled a loose ragged skirt. She was wearing tight pants and dark brown knee-length boots. He reverted to using his charisma as a lure and the woman graciously said thank you to his compliment.

Bucky thought that he might have finally found another girl to focus on until her fingers rested comfortably on his cold metallic hand, her free arm set itself on his other arm and they started to dance.

He realized with dismay who he was dancing with and instantly regretted turning on the charm.


	14. Stage 1 FIGHT!

He was convinced the woman was going to slap him, but she did nothing of the sort as he held out his hand and she twirled, the folds of her shirt trailing after her.

"Bucky?"

Bucky saw her lips move upward in a smile. "Is that what I.T. has you wearing?"

Bucky joked that he had to carry all of his weapons somewhere and assured her they weren't loaded. He watched Natasha smile her mysterious smile again. She chuckled a little as she said I.T. had tried to trick her into wearing costumes she considered impractical because it would be hard for her to reach for her concealed knives that she liked to carry around (a habit she still retained from their time in Russia, he noted). But she relented because I.T. was great with fashion and as long as they followed her 'suggestions' to the letter (Bucky suspected that there were threats involved) Natasha would be fine with whatever they gave her.

"This is a handsome look on you, Bucky Barnes. I'm surprised."

Well whatever I.T. had planned, _something_ was working. He told her it fit his needs; he could carry as many weapons as he could and no, the pistols were not loaded.

"What are you doing here, Natalia? I thought you'd still be on that stage with Bruce."

"Would I ever miss an opportunity to dance, Winter Soldier?" She told him in a mix of casual Russian and English that Bruce Wayne was going over logistics with the other Princes and, because he knew how much she loved to dance, he let her loose on the dance floor. Natasha examined the white hood that was still covering Bucky's face.

"I've always told you back in Russia to cover your head with something warm and you wait until _now_ to do it," she scolded him in warm Russian.

Bucky remembered that. That had been a point of contention between them. He was convinced that covering his head with anything would impair his vision and his accuracy; she pointed out that his hair was so long it would create the exact same problem anyway.

After they'd danced together for awhile, the music changed again and a crowd had formed around another couple. Bucky and Natasha found Clint, Steve, Sharon and the rest of the group and looked at the center of attention: it was Katerina and her extremely good looking partner dancing the rumba. It was just like Katerina to steal the show; she _was_ nationally recognized as talented dancer, after all. As Katerina twirled she gave Bucky a 'come hither' look and glared at Darcy and Natasha, but he didn't move. Bucky recalled that she tried to get his attention earlier and wondered if his rejection of her had anything to do with this.

They heard the crowd ooh and aah with each move. Katerina was not an up and coming ballerina for nothing. As she ended her dance, her expression changed as she called out Natasha and hissed:

"Let's see you do better than that."

The brunette still wanted to pick a fight with Natasha. The truth was that Katerina saw Natasha as a threat; from her perspective, Natasha could have been a professional dancer, but instead she chose to be an Avenger and her achievements as an Avenger overshadowed anything Katerina could have done. Not only _that_, Natasha was dating the billionaire Bruce Wayne. Because she could not use Bucky to irritate Natasha, Katerina needed to challenge Natasha to a dance-off; her ego demanded it.

Natasha tsk'ed. She had moved on from whatever grudge she had held against Katerina, but she did not like Katerina anyway. Maybe it did have something to do with Tony Stark's charity gala, or maybe it was because they had nearly the same personality and devotion to their work. Natasha did not care; all she knew was that she disliked Katerina as well, and something needed to be done. She had been challenged; she was not going to walk away from it without a fight.

All eyes were on Bruce Wayne's girlfriend, eagerly anticipating how she would react.

First Natasha dragged a reluctant Bucky into the dance floor and whispered to him. "What do you know about dancing?"

That was easy. He always took girls out on dates and he learned early on that one of the most important things he needed to know was dancing. So he told her what he knew.

"But why would you…"

"Bruce isn't here, so you're going to dance with me," she ordered him.

Bucky knew better than to say no.

Natasha considered what he knew, and decided they would start with the tango. Bucky was secretly grateful that he'd had the chance to brush up on that particular dance on a date with a hot blooded girl named Isabelle not long ago. They moved to one end of the dance floor and Natasha put one hand on his shoulder and held his left hand while he put his arm behind her to lead. He hesitated at first, but she whispered to him, "I trust you."

The audience fell silent while the strings soared. Bucky couldn't really think much about anything except to lead, watch his footwork, and not step on Natasha's feet. They started slow at first, and then he dipped her down, picked her up and they circled around the floor. Their rhythm picked up once the music became more intense and the piano joined in. He watched her laugh and turn and a thought crossed his mind that he could enjoy this, the dancing. He wasn't dancing this time because it was an obligation, something he needed in order to talk to girls. It was just really fun. When the music stopped and the dance ended he was a little disappointed that it couldn't go on longer but let the feeling slide as Katerina, irritated, responded with the cha-cha.

Bucky and Natasha stood to the edge next to the S.H.I.E.L.D. group. Clint patted him on the shoulder supportively as they watched Katerina and her partner dance. The music was lively, their dance flashy. Katerina was a pretty girl, no doubt and her footwork was crisp. The audience responded to this, clapping and cheering every now and then.

And when the song ended, Katerina turned to look victoriously at Bucky and Natasha.

Natasha scrunched her face together, deep in thought before her eyes lit up.

"Bucky," she turned to him. "Remember that crazy instructor we had in Russia?"


	15. Dueling Hotheads Pt 3 Joy of Swordfights

"Wait, no, you can't be thinking of that!" Bucky protested.

He knew exactly which instructor Natasha was thinking of, and he didn't like the idea. He never liked the instructor; she favored Natasha and sadistically enjoyed using him as a punching bag during trainings.

"Do you trust me, Bucky?"

"Of course I do, but... this is..."

Natasha ignored him and started talking to a servant, who immediately disappeared.

While they waited, Katerina taunted Natasha, asking her what kind of fancier dance move could she come up with next? Natasha only rolled her eyes and didn't respond. She simply crossed her arms and waited patiently. With despair, Bucky removed the pistols from his costume and handed them over to Aamir. If he was right about Natasha's devious plan, the pistols would only get in the way.

The servant returned with a heavy box of three authentic swords from Bruce Wayne's personal collection. Natasha grabbed two and threw the third one at Bucky.

"Bucky, _catch!_"

Eyes widening, Bucky saw the glint of something shiny flying toward him at breakneck speed. "Wait, wait, _wait_!"

Thankfully, he caught the sword without having it slice off his arm, but then Natasha leapt at him, her swords at the ready.

"Shit," he thought to himself as he used his metallic arm and the one sword to push her away from him. The deejay, sensing an opportunity, began to play some heavy electronic rock music while Bucky and Natasha circled each other threateningly. Bucky didn't know what Natasha was thinking.

"She's going to kill him!" Aamir cried, but he didn't send a text alert; he was pretty sure the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were watching this and maybe even recording it.  
"I don't think she'll do that," Darcy demurred, but she felt like she was lying to herself.

The thumping of the beats echoed in the skies.

Bucky had happily forgotten the other time he'd used swords until Natasha made him relive the trauma. Back in Russia, he and Natasha had briefly trained under an instructor who thought it would be amusing to give Natasha (Natalia at the time) as many swords and/or knives as she could hold just to make the name Black Widow more visual. Other trainees before him who fought the Black Widow with swords were frequently sent to the doctor to recover, and in the end, only Bucky could keep up with Natasha without getting critically wounded, or much, much worse. You get another arm slashed off, the instructor had said, so what? We can build you another. Bucky was not pleased about it then. He was still unhappy about it.

"I hope you remember how we did this," Natasha warned as she held a sword at either side of her and charged at Bucky, who instinctively went into defensive position. And of course she wasn't running toward him; she was dancing toward him. He heard the _whump whump whump_ and the drums of the music and silently cursed their instructor again as Natasha held out the two swords and gracefully made a spinning leap toward him with a loud "AAH!" Bucky couldn't help but think that Natasha looked like a butterfly.

But a butterfly…with sharp objects.

He would have thought it was sexy except that _this brought back nightmares. _Holding out his sword in front of him, Bucky ducked underneath Natasha and managed to dodge her swords as she landed with a gentle thud behind him. Before he could get a chance to curse their instructor again, Natasha immediately flipped around and actually tried to slash him with the sword on her right hand.

Panicked Russian: "Natalia, I thought we were done with this!"

Steve almost intervened, like he always did when Bucky and Natasha fought, but Darcy and Aamir motioned for him to stay put. They wanted to see where this was headed. Something about the way they fought each other was too captivating to end.

"I'm not trying to kill you," Natasha mumbled as she tried to stab Bucky with her swords. Many times.

She was trying to kill him.

The rush of adrenaline surged as Bucky shifted his weight and moved his body slightly so that the swords wouldn't hit him. Natasha slinked next to him sensuously before she tried to slash him from the back. He flipped backwards over the swords and landed on his feet.

He gave Steve a helpless look of terror before he turned to face Natasha, who was trying to chop his body in two. Instinctively, he leaped upward like a cat and his feet landed on Natasha's arms. Because he was nervous, Bucky grinned at Natasha as he flipped backward, increasing the distance between them. Moving in time with the music, Bucky and Natasha circled each other again like two vicious and hungry predators. They taunted each other in romantic Italian, daring the other person to move closer. Time stood still as the audience clutched their hearts and held their breath.

Natasha attacked first, moving rhythmically as she pulled out two small knives from inside her boot and threw them in Bucky's direction. There was a gasp as Bucky bent over backward and barely dodged the knives; they were dangerously close to his face.

The energy caused Bucky to ignore the thumping of the music and the crowd's reaction. He could only see Aamir mouthing something and pointing at his wrists. He suddenly recalled that he had a retractable knife on his right hand. When Natasha swooped close to him he let out the knife from his wrist and punched her with it without doing much harm. Not a lot of harm, anyway. She looked back at him in surprise as a streak of blood slipped down from her cheek.

In return, he gave Natasha his most charming and innocent smile.

"No fair, Winter Soldier," Natasha muttered in Russian, but she seemed to be enjoying this.

Natasha crossed her swords and literally tried to chop off Bucky's head with them, except he blocked and pushed them back. She used her swords again to push him to the other side of the makeshift dance floor. There was a gasp as the partygoers parted like the sea and Natasha tried to slam Bucky into a tree. Instead, he threw his sword upward, grabbed her shoulders and somersaulted behind her. There was another gasp as Bucky turned around, caught the sword and slashed her from behind, making a tear in the back of her shirt.

"You're very good at dancing, Bucky."

"Dancing? How about _not getting myself killed?!_" But he wasn't angry anymore; he just liked the challenge.

She charged at him and the three swords clashed against each other so quickly that the audience couldn't tell what was going on. But with the help of the music, the guests could feel the electricity flowing between Bucky and Natasha and the passion in their dance. There was something about the way they fought and the way they seemed to enjoy this fight-dance that appealed to the audience so much, they couldn't applaud or cheer. They simply stared.

Suddenly the audience heard a whooshing sound as a sword flew extremely high into the air, and in that moment Bucky was doing his best to defend himself from Natasha's two swords. They were leaping, tumbling, somersaulting while they were kicking, punching and stabbing. She tried to trip him with a ground kick and he jumped over her. As he did so he winked at Natasha, like he'd done as the Winter Soldier, yanked one of the swords from her hand, and caught the sword falling from the sky.

The fight-dance ended in a stalemate. Bucky was kneeling on the floor, pointing his two swords straight at Natasha's face while she pointed her own at Bucky. Their eyes met as the music came to a stop and he could hear his own labored breathing.

Natasha had that weird look about her again, but before Bucky could figure out why, everyone applauded. Natasha helped Bucky get up before she bowed. Bucky watched her glance victoriously at Katerina's direction. Katerina, defeated, immediately stormed off the premises, her partner trailing after her.

When Bucky returned to the gang and Natasha ran into the arms of a proud Bruce Wayne, who had managed to find time to watch the dance-off, Aamir told him, "Wow, Bucky. but…wow. Wow." He paused. "That was sexy. I want to marry her now."

"I'm impressed," Darcy said, patting him on the back.

"Bucky," Steve was blushing, "I don't know what to say anymore."

"What are you guys all talking about? _She_ tried to kill me!"

Clint ignored this. "So, Bucky…would you like to share with the class what _else_ you guys did in Russia?"

Bucky's face reddened with annoyance (embarrassment).

Even the tabloids figured Bucky and Natasha had chemistry together, because after the party, Bucky would later find the following in the headlines greeting him:

"Mysterious New Threat to Bruce Wayne!"


	16. The Beginning of the End

Bucky occasionally ran into Natasha throughout the festival but did not really get a chance to talk to her again until Halloween. He was spending more of his time with the other people of the S.H.I.E.L.D. crew, especially Clint, Steve and Darcy. He enjoyed the food, the dancing, the partying, all the flashing lights, but for some reason, it felt as if there was nothing more magical than the opening day.

When he found Natasha again, she was talking with Bruce Wayne in a quiet area outside. Bruce Wayne greeted him politely and thanked him for "defending his lady's honor." Darcy was enthusiastic about meeting Bruce Wayne in person, especially as Natasha had nothing but good words for Bruce Wayne.

Afterward, Bruce Wayne said he needed to head back to host the ceremonies with Tony and the other Princes, and kissed Natasha affectionately on the cheek.

"Thanks," Natasha told Bucky.

"For what?"

"For dancing with me."

"I'll always dance with you," Bucky confessed, before he realized what he was doing in that moment.

Natasha looked at him, stunned, and was about to say something-harsh? Remorseful? Angry?- before Darcy, sensing the awkwardness, ran intervention for the second time in that event and asked why Natasha didn't go with Bruce Wayne to head the festivities. Laughing, Natasha simply responded that she needed the quiet, and this place they were sitting under the trees was just perfect. Darcy distracted her friend with overenthusiastic questions about her relationship with Bruce Wayne and asked pointed questions about how she dealt with the sudden fame and paparazzi ("Oh, I can fight them off. Kill them if I have to," Natasha said half-jokingly…). Bucky recovered and joined in the conversation, discussing his thoughts on the music and the food so far and how great everything was. He hadn't been to something huge like this since the World's Fair with Steve a long, long time ago. All eyes turned to Bucky expectantly, and he talked about Howard Stark's flying car and how Steve managed to disappear from him.

Bucky avoided mentioning the fact that he'd been frozen for some time until his re-emergence as the Winter Soldier, but then Natasha began to reflect on their time in Russia. Darcy observed the two swapping stories that only the other person knew about in detail.

"You dated my sister, you idiot!" Natasha said laughing.

"I swear to you, I didn't know Ana was your sister," Bucky protested, "or I'd have stayed clear away from her and gone after someone else."

"That's what you _say_," Natasha chuckled, punching him hard in the arm. She explained to Darcy that Ana was her childhood friend who'd defected from Russia and was now living as a civilian in an undisclosed location. "Bucky, tell Darcy about the instructor we had in Russia."

Bucky reacted with some fear. "You want _me_ to tell Darcy about that lunatic?"

"Darcy, that lunatic was the one who helped us beat Katerina in a dance-off," Natasha smiled.

"I didn't know I'd _ever _need to remember what she taught us," Bucky remarked. "Nat, I still say you tried to kill me."

Natasha smiled and ignored Bucky, telling Darcy about her 'special training' that sent a lot of their classmates to the medical room. "And Bucky was the only person left who could help me," she added, "so I dragged him into the training room- "

Without skipping a beat, Bucky continued the sentence, "-and she nearly chopped my arm off!" He pointed at his flesh-and-blood arm. "The instructor said-"

Natasha completed the sentence, "-that it was _just an arm_, they could build another one if they had to!"

Darcy wasn't sure whether to laugh or scream, but she watched Natasha laugh and elbow Bucky in the arm again and suddenly he had an arm around her (in a friendly way, not a romantic way) and they were reminiscing about other memories in Russia. Darcy noticed that they alternated between completing each other's sentences and letting the other person tell most of the story so casually and had a rhythm to their conversation that in a parallel universe, they could have been an item.

She was happy for Natasha that she had found Bruce Wayne, but she began to wonder if there was another person who might be right for her that Natasha had absolutely no clue about. Even though Darcy thought that the other two couldn't feel it, she could tell that Bucky was deeply in love with Natasha, so much that he would be willing to let go of her if he had to. And if it turned out that Natasha would end up staying with Bruce Wayne, Bucky Barnes would probably need the behind-the-scenes support of the other Avengers and the I.T. Department in order to move on.

Before she could do anything else, though, Bucky spoke up again, and this time his usually arrogant demeanor changed into something…

Vulnerable.

Maybe it was the overabundance of alcohol. Or the fact that it was late at night. Or it was this damn tree they were all sitting under. Or the pirate theme. But as the fireworks lit up the darkened sky above, something was about to happen, and there was no way for Darcy to run intervention for another time. She sensed that Bucky needed to say whatever it was he needed to say next and that it would be directed toward Natasha. There was no stopping him. The status quo was about to change again.

She noticed Steve, Sharon, Clint and the I.T. Straw Hats walking toward them and told Bucky and Natasha that she needed to 'go somewhere.'

"I'll leave you two alone."

Darcy immediately made a waving gesture for the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. crew to stop walking. She ran toward them as Aamir asked her what was going on.

"Bucky's about to do something," Darcy whispered back. She pointed at the two people sitting under the trees in the distance and softly informed everyone that it was Bucky and Natasha.

"Wait, did I.T. actually succeed?" Stanley asked, eyes wide. (He knew about I.T.'s plan to somehow get Bucky and Natasha together.)

"No time for jokes!" Darcy hissed. She looked at Steve sternly. "Whatever happens, don't walk over there yet."

"I…what?"

"Just wait and see!"

The crew looked at the two figures underneath the trees. Bucky and Natasha were facing each other. They were doing that for a long time; it looked like they were talking to each other. Darcy had a good idea what they might be talking about, because everyone at the party could sense the chemistry between the two.

"Wait, is he _hugging her?_" Clint whispered intently.

The taller figure suddenly had his arms wrapped around the shorter one. They stayed that way until the taller one let go and began the long march in the direction the S.H.I.E.L.D. crew were standing in.

"I…I don't think Natasha expected that," Aamir observed.

Darcy shushed them. "Bucky's coming this way! Act normal!"

Bucky walked toward them, his face revealing nothing about his talk with Natasha. Steve and Sharon immediately walked next to him for support, but they avoided asking him about anything else and talked about how much fun they had. The I.T. Straw Hats did their best to stay in character as members of the Straw Hat Crew while Clint decided it was safer to walk along with Darcy. The air had changed from festive to serious.

They all secretly wondered if they would need to enlist the help of Tony Stark, one of the managers of the ongoing office pool (despite being friends with Bruce Wayne) and the I.T. Department in another informal mission.

They decided to wait and see first.

"Come on," Darcy said, herding everyone, "I think it's time to go home."


	17. The Dark Year

The first year after Halloween was known to the agents as "The Dark Year" or "When Code Black Reigned." Code Black was Aamir's new color alert for Bucky and Natasha: things had changed, and they couldn't do anything about it. Even the office pool was stagnant because no one expected this turn of events either (although Bob the Janitor _did_ happen to predict that Bucky would confess to Natasha sometime around Halloween).

During this time, Bucky and Natasha's daily lunches at work ended; Bucky would hang out more frequently with Steve, Clint and Aamir from I.T. while Natasha chose to have her lunches with Maria Hill and Sharon Carter. When the two met, it was on a professional level, but they tried to avoid it whenever they could. Research and Development decided that this was now an appropriate time for them to return some of the expensive equipment back to their original spots. There was no fighting; frankly, everyone missed the yelling, because now the office was eerily quiet. They had been so used to Bucky and Natasha always being together (yelling or not) that they couldn't adjust to this new dynamic.

Meanwhile, with Sharon's help, Steve began to drag Bucky out on double dates to keep him distracted from Natasha. Because he'd been on the other end of this before, Steve did not relish this role. The first couple of double dates didn't go so well; the girl was expecting fun Bucky, not serious Bucky. After warming up to the double dates Bucky seemed much, much happier, even going so far as to flirt with girls and then to ask them out on one-on-one dates. Gradually, Bucky was back to being his usual charming (arrogant) self and the women were swarming all over him again and the contact list on his phone exploded with names. Steve figured it was time to let Bucky fly and stop with the double dates. However, he did notice that Bucky only really went out with each of these girls once. It was unusual for him; normally, he'd at least go out with a girl for a couple of weeks before moving on to the next one.

The only real problem arose when Bucky would inevitably come across the tabloids and celebrity gossip. The more resourceful paparazzi had finally gleaned the identity of the mysterious new threat to Bruce Wayne's relationship with Natasha Romanoff months after the fact and questioned his true identity. The last known instance of a James Barnes was about seventy years ago. Was he a descendant of this person or a complete fake? More importantly, who was he to Natasha Romanoff? There were old pictures of Bucky and Natasha together, but they were clearly cropped from a group photo of the Avengers.

But when Bucky would read the headlines, his confident demeanor would become dark, because in reality, Bucky's history was too complicated to explain and he had not been much of a threat to Bruce Wayne at all, nor did he want to. In his own words, he had told Natasha "I don't know how I never thought about this before but I liked you ever since we were sixteen and I think I love you but you're seeing Bruce Wayne so we can only be friends and that means I can't talk to you for awhile until I'm over you" all in one breath. He even gave Natasha the whole "It's not you, it's me" speech, the kind usually reserved for the girls who didn't understand that he wasn't interested anymore. Except this time he really was interested in the girl this time and it hurt to say it. Bucky wished he was only known as the Winter Soldier so he didn't have to deal with this anymore. Meanwhile, Steve had to work pretty hard to eliminate any traces of tabloids and celebrity gossip from their apartment and direct Bucky's attention elsewhere when they did come across one.

More months passed, and Bucky continued to go on dates with different women while Natasha went to Bruce Wayne's parties or attended Tony Stark's parties with Bruce Wayne. The two of them still did not do anything beyond greeting each other and working with each other if they were forced on missions together.

Bucky assured Steve that everything was just fine.

Really, though, nothing was completely fine. The feeling was the same one he'd had as the Winter Soldier, when Natasha had suddenly disappeared from Russia and everyone assumed she had been killed on a mission. It was the feeling that he was too late. In the present, he had told Natasha he wanted to remain friends, but the truth was (and he was sure she knew it too) it would be too hard living with the reminder of what he couldn't have.

So when Steve suggested that he not go to the Avengers-only New Year's party (plus ones allowed), he agreed.

He didn't want to see Natasha there with Bruce Wayne standing next to her.


	18. Something is Not Right with this Picture

Sharon was knocking at the door to the apartment that Steve and Bucky shared. Steve opened the door and greeted her with a kiss.

"Ready to go?"

"Hang on, I need to check on something."

Sharon waited patiently at the entrance while Steve, like a parent not ready to let go, walked over to Bucky, who was sitting on their couch in the living room, watching television, and asked if he'd be okay on his own.

"Of course."

Even tone. No emotion. Maybe it was a guy thing, but Steve figured that whatever was bugging Bucky, his brother needed to deal with it alone. He noticed that Bucky was holding something in his hand but didn't question it. As long as it wasn't a bottle of some strong vodka… Steve remembered Bucky's early days before he was good with women; rejection or defeat was not something he handled well, even if, over time, he'd learned to hide it better.

Through the silence the two brothers communicated everything they needed to communicate with each other. Yes, it was a better idea for Bucky to stay in; yes, he was still feeling a little down when the thought of Natasha with Bruce Wayne occasionally crept into his mind; no, of course he wasn't going to do something stupid but yes, he needed the alone time.

"Well don't burn anything down while I'm gone, alright?"

Bucky laughed a little and nodded. "You two have fun."

When Steve and Sharon left for the Avengers' New Year's Party at Phil Coulson's house, Bucky picked up the present sitting next to him again. It was a simple white scarf, colored pure white to blend with the snow. It had been Natasha's (Natalia at the time), and it was the scarf she would always try to get him to wear whenever they went out on missions so he'd at least be warmer (he did not like wearing more than he needed to do). Of course he'd always rejected it, until the day she disappeared and everyone thought she'd been killed, and it just happened that Natasha had forgotten to take the fabric with her. After her supposed 'death,' her sister, Ana, had given it to him as a memento.

She somehow knew.

After that, as the Winter Soldier he'd always kept it with him, and as Bucky Barnes again he'd stored the scarf somewhere safe and never told Natasha about it, not even after he found out she was still alive and immediately defected to be with her. He hadn't thought to take it out of its hiding spot until now. What was left of Bucky's logic recommended that he get rid of the scarf, maybe even burn it.

But what Bucky realized was that he was never going to be over Natasha.

He decided he would use the white scarf as one more excuse (one more chance) to see Natasha again before he turned his back on her for good.

* * *

Sharon: "You think he'll be fine?"

Steve: "Yeah. He'll get over it."

Steve and Sharon entered the modest home of Phil Coulson with the usual gifts and the usual greetings. "How are you?" "Haven't seen you in a long time." "How are the kids doing?" "Can't wait for the new year to come!" "Love the music. Who's the caterer?" It was much more subdued than any of Tony Stark's or Bruce Wayne's parties, which was a good thing; they needed a break from the craziness after all. Even Tony Stark and Pepper Potts briefly attended the party before they had to leave to host the Stark New Year's extravaganza, but as the couple left, Tony gave Steve the strangest wink: not a flirtatious one, but one that indicated he knew a little secret no one else did.

Steve thought that was odd but continued to enjoy the party with Sharon.

"Hi, Steve. Sharon."

He and Sharon turned to the source of the voice and found Natasha and Darcy looking back at them.

"Nat!" He greeted her. Something was odd about this; Natasha was here at Coulson's, but it was Darcy Lewis with her and not Bruce Wayne. "Where's your boyfriend?"

"Busy," Natasha said simply. Steve noticed Darcy gave her a sympathetic look. "Steve…" Natasha looked around. "Where's Bucky? I thought he might be here."

"Avoiding you." Steve shrugged. He figured he'd been babysitting Bucky and Natasha long enough that he could say something like that.

He saw Darcy whisper something to Natasha, and Natasha looked back at her with an odd look on her face. They were suddenly sharing little messages that Steve couldn't decode but he had learned a long time ago that people needed their secrets and that things would be revealed in time.

Darcy chimed in. "Seriously, Steve, where's Bucky?"

"Why do you want to know?"

Darcy fidgeted and Steve thought she had something to hide. "Nat wants to talk to him."

Nothing about Natasha's question, Bruce Wayne not being there or Darcy's cryptic words made any sense, but Steve told them where Bucky was anyway:

"He's where he's always been: in the same old apartment" that he and Bucky shared. "You've been there." Indeed, Natasha had visited a couple of times with Clint and Sam.

"You go ahead," he heard Darcy tell Natasha, "I'll get Clint to take me home later."

As if on cue, Clint appeared and took Darcy by the hand while Natasha quickly said her hello's to Sam Wilson and Phil Coulson, apologized that she couldn't stay because was only dropping a friend off, and quickly rushed out of the entrance.

Steve wondered what Natasha was trying to do, but he decided to find out later and asked Sharon to dance.


	19. The Purple Haze of my Love For You

"Bucky, it's me. Open up."

Bucky woke up from his sleep. He recognized the song playing on his music player; it was a song about purple haze and girls putting spells on people, written by a musician who Tony Stark highly recommended. He immediately stopped the music mid-song, checking the time. Seven-thirty. He leisurely got up, walked toward the entrance and looked through the peephole. There were green eyes and red hair staring back at him.

Natasha.

He'd wanted one more chance to see her so he could say goodbye. Now that the moment was here, he lost his resolve; Bucky wasn't sure if he wanted to follow through with this after all. Maybe he could just live with the fact that she would eventually marry Bruce Wayne. After all, he wasn't the kind of guy who liked commitment, and Natasha deserved better. No, he had to do what he set out to do and end their friendship. But he didn't want to give her up completely; he was still addicted to her. If she could only be his friend, then that's how things were going to go. But he had to let her go if he wanted to see other women. He _had_ to. He wanted to date other women, right?

Stern German: "James, I know you're in there. Don't make me kick down this door."

Not wanting to pay for repairs, Bucky quickly opened the door and Natasha entered the apartment before he could say anything, hanging her coat and setting her heels by the entrance. Annoyed, Bucky figured that Steve had told Natasha where he'd been, well, _hiding_, but why did Natasha want to know where he was in the first place?

Without a word, Natasha pushed past him ("Nat, you can't just barge in here!") and plopped her bag on a table nearby as if she owned the place. Bucky noticed that she was wearing a short dark green cocktail dress and couldn't help using tired and accusatory Russian at her, "What are you doing here, Nat? Aren't you supposed to be somewhere else?"

Natasha had wanted to make a beeline for the kitchen, but at his question she stopped in her tracks and immediately feigned innocence. Bucky thought it wasn't a good look on her. "You mean Coulson's party?"

He nodded.

"I decided not to go." She disappeared into the kitchen and Bucky followed after her. He always followed after her, like he was looking for some kind of high. Something was off, though; why was Natasha alone?

"Where's your boyfriend?"

A deflection. "I'm hungry. What do you have to eat?" She considered a small cup of yogurt.

"That wouldn't be enough for you, Nat." Bucky knew that Natasha was avoiding his question, but he offered to make her a quick grilled cheese and tomato sandwich.

As he put the sandwich on a plate and handed it to Natasha, she informed him, "Bruce has been busy."

He recognized the way she said 'busy;' she said it like it belonged in quotes. "He's…not waiting for you outside or anything?"

"I came here by myself."

She couldn't possibly be saying this to him; he had to be dreaming. Was Natasha really standing right there in his apartment, all beautiful and dolled up in her cute green dress? Somebody must have slipped him something and he was hallucinating this whole scenario. _They were actually alone together._ That rarely happened. Bucky had wanted to leave her behind and move on, and she had come back for him; why couldn't he quit her? She had some kind of hold over him. What the hell was she trying to do to him? Unless...

"Did Tony put you up to this? Because I swear-"

"No!" She was gripping his arm as if to comfort him.

Still convinced that this was a stupid prank of Tony's, he shook her hand off. "You should leave. _Now._" He didn't want Natasha toying with his feelings; he had enough to deal with already.

"Just let me explain."

Bucky was still suspicious. "Talk."

Natasha blurted out the words quickly: "I broke up with Bruce." To avoid saying anything more, she took a bite out of the grilled cheese.

"Oh." It wasn't a prank after all. He didn't know what to do with this unexpected piece of news. He wanted to yell at her that she was lying, but he took one look at her and decided against it. "When?"

"Few months ago." A pause. "I thought about you."

"So now you've promoted me to rebound," he said resentfully.

He didn't mean to say that.

"What makes you think I want you to be my rebound?"

Natasha practically implied that she could find any guy to be her rebound, not just Bucky. He realized grimly that their arguing had resumed again. It should be a good thing, but he didn't like the topic. Seething, he grabbed a fork and the chicken cobb salad from the fridge and sat across from Natasha.

She sighed. "Will you stop being mad at me?"

Bucky concentrated on the salad he was eating and refused to look at Natasha. Every time he thought he could finally leave, she was pulling him back into her web and he was letting himself get pulled toward her. Why couldn't he just move on like he did with all the others? He almost screamed from the frustration but his pride demanded he keep it together. He silently counted to ten and let his emotions recalibrate themselves.

"I'm not mad." He said in a pathetic voice.

He thought Natasha would argue with him on this, but instead she assured him softly, "Of course you're not."

Bucky was both relieved and indignant that Natasha had popped back into his life. He was sure he'd finally lost her to Bruce Wayne, but in the end she was here with him. Bucky figured if she had really wanted to end their friendship, she would have done it by now. It made sense in some odd way; even though they'd see other people they both managed to return to each other, bickering and arguing along the way. Besides Steve, Natasha was the true constant in his life in a sea of women he casually dated.

Perhaps he should take a chance, but because Bucky wasn't sure if Natasha was completely over Bruce Wayne, he decided to crack a random joke instead and heard Natasha's surprised laughter for the first time in months. The laughter eased the tension and their friendship resumed as if it had never changed before. They avoided discussing Bruce Wayne but caught up on everything they'd done in the past year. Natasha got a napkin and wiped something off the side of his lip (that was new; she'd never done that before) and gossiped about Clint and Darcy before he inquired after their friend Ana. When there was a lull in the conversation, Natasha finally admitted to him:

"I missed you, Bucky."

"I missed you, too, Nat."


	20. Let's Give Them Something to Talk About

"What time is it?"

"Nine fifteen p.m., why?"

"Well now that I'm here," Natasha insisted, "I'm not going to let you sit here and mope around or whatever it is you do by yourself."

Despite accepting the friendship as it was, Bucky could not help but flirt with her or at the very least start another fight. "Did you want to find out what I do alone at night when no one's around?"

"Uggh, god no!" Disgusted, Natasha pushed him away from her. But she admitted she set herself up for that one.

He grinned and laughed.

She glared back at him but dusted herself off and stood up. "We're going to do something for New Year's, okay? Less than three hours left now."

"What did you have in mind?"

"The rink at Rockefeller." She got her belongings and put on her coat.

"Like old times," Bucky said, thinking about the time he'd gone ice skating with her and Ana in Moscow. He told Natasha to wait a minute and emerged from his bedroom awhile later in a casual suit that would better match Natasha's dress and coat. He watched her roll her eyes at his outfit, because no matter what she said, no matter what the weather was, Bucky never did like dressing more than he needed to.

"Well if we're going to be seen in public together, we might as well look good together. The paparazzi still follow you around, don't they?" When Bucky had casually looked out the kitchen window, he'd seen one lurking outside.

"Ah," she laughed heartily, "someone did try to follow me into the building. Ready to go?"

"One more thing."

He grabbed her white scarf still sitting on the couch and wrapped it gently around her neck. In one day, it had transformed from a symbol of farewell into a symbol of hope. Natasha fingered the fabric and looked up at Bucky in surprise before he saw her expression change into sadness for a split second. "I forgot to take it with me that day," she reflected sorrowfully, "and I couldn't tell anyone where I'd gone to."

Bucky told her that was all in the past; what mattered was that they were right here, right now.

Natasha's fingers touched the scarf in quiet but pleasant disbelief. "Ana never told me she gave it to you...you still kept that old thing after all this time?"

He didn't respond and only motioned for them to head out. The bright flashing lights of the paparazzi waited for them outside. Somehow, when one of them knew where you were, _all_ of them knew. Because he and Natasha were good at poker faces, they remained expressionless as they kept walking. People were asking Natasha stupid questions now.

"Natasha! Tell us what you're doing here?" He knew Natasha couldn't walk as fast as she would like on her heels, so he held her close to him as if this would somehow protect her from all the cameras.

"Where's Bruce Wayne?" This again.

"Where are you headed to?" Did these people really have nothing else to do but bother Natasha?

"Who's he?" They were referring to Bucky. "Is he an Avenger too?" In many ways, he was more like Captain America's sidekick, but Bucky didn't answer. "What's wrong with his hand? Is it artificial?"

Then a loaded question: "Are you cheating on Bruce Wayne?" Bucky tensed; he wanted to beat down whoever asked that question, because it wasn't their business to know, but Natasha shook her head and they kept walking.

The paparazzi finally scattered and chose to follow Bucky and Natasha surreptitiously instead (not that they were very stealthy; with their training as spies, Bucky and Natasha knew they were being followed but decided to ignore them). After they'd arrived at the rink and put on their skates, Natasha grabbed Bucky by the arm and pulled him onto the ice. Sure he and Natasha were just friends but for Bucky this sure as hell felt like a date (albeit one he was sure would make it to the tabloids the next day). He was grinning like an idiot and he couldn't help it, and right now, at least, Natasha didn't seem to mind the cheesy one-liners he'd occasionally throw at her out of sheer nervousness. As she skated ahead of him, her white scarf flowed behind her like angel's wings. They ended up gliding alongside each other and even though there were lots of people, Bucky imagined that they were skating alone and that there was no one else in the world but him and her. Bucky and Natasha.

After skating awhile, the crowd began to countdown to the new year and Bucky and Natasha stood still on the ice, their fingers interlaced together. They both knew that the paparazzi were closing in on them like bloodthirsty sharks, but they didn't care; if the nosy people got too close, they could beat them off if they had to, and Fury could deal with the mess.

_Seven._

There was something about this moment that made Bucky feel bolder than he really should have been about what he wanted to do next. He knew the paparazzi were waiting for him and Natasha to do something scandalous. Well, if they wanted a scandal, then that's what they would get.

_Six._

Bucky turned to Natasha. "You know what they say about New Year's." He remembered the first time he asked Natasha for a kiss and she flat out refused him. He figured this time it would turn out much differently and that it might work out to his advantage. There was no harm in asking; their friendship had endured a lot throughout the years.

What was one simple kiss?

_Five._

Without skipping a beat, Natasha asked innocently, "No, what?" She seemed to know what he wanted to do.

_Four._

"If we don't kiss at midnight, then we're doomed to be alone for the next year." He pulled Natasha close to him; it was a risk that paid off. Instead of punching him, Natasha relaxed into his arms. If anyone had told the Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes) at eighteen that if he was patient enough, he would eventually kiss Natalia Romanova (Natasha Romanoff), he wouldn't have believed it.

_Three._

With a determined look on her face, Natasha murmured fervently, "We wouldn't want that would we?"

_Two._

He gave her a big smile and caressed her cheek. He had to admit (just to himself; he'd never admit this to a girl) that he was a little bit nervous about this kiss; he'd mentally built a lot hype around it for the better part of nearly two decades because Natasha had never given him what he wanted until now. Grinning, he gazed affectionately into Natasha's eyes and added:

"Besides, Nat, we need to give the paparazzi something to talk about."

_One._


	21. Avenger Steals Black Widow's Heart!

He was on top of Natasha. Her mouth opened a little and he could see her lick her lower lip seductively. He rested his arms on either side of her and moved closer. Bucky could hear her moan. She arched her back a little and smiled as she put a hand on his nape, dragging him down with her-

"Bucky. Wake up."

Bucky opened his eyes and found Steve staring at him.

"But I was just getting to the good part," he whined, thinking about all the raunchy words he could have used instead of 'good.' He'd been lying on the couch and he felt a piece of paper in his hands. Natasha had left early, but before she did she left him a note. He'd have to read that later, because Steve was shoving something in his face.

"What the hell is this?"

The front cover read, "Avenger Steals Black Widow's Heart! Party Prince Heartbroken" He saw the picture of him kissing Natasha hard on the lips and thought with amusement that the paparazzi had gotten his good side.

Bucky grinned. "Publicity?"

"I leave you alone for just one night…" Steve paused. "Isn't she still seeing Bruce Wayne?" Steve couldn't figure out if the picture was real or not; the I.T. people had told him once it would be easy to make fake ones.

"You should really learn not to believe everything you read," Bucky recommended, a twinkle in his eye. His voice got quieter. "She said they broke up months ago."

For Steve, that would explain why Natasha showed up at Coulson's house with Darcy and Bruce Wayne was nowhere to be found. It would also explain what she and Darcy were whispering to each other before Natasha immediately left. Still, it didn't make this kiss between Bucky and Natasha any better, because as far as he could tell, they still weren't officially together yet. He knew if he asked either of them about it they would just deny everything. Besides, Steve was sure that nothing actually happened in that living room beyond any kissing. When he found Bucky and Natasha, they had been fully clothed and sleeping next to each other on that couch. If anything really did happen...well, let's just say he would have needed to invest in some high-quality bleach and disinfectants, maybe even looked for another apartment.

Still, he suspected that their favorite couch had seen some kind of action that night. "Do I have to burn down the couch now, James Buchanan Barnes?"

Bucky grinned widely. "You made that sound sexier than it really was, Steve Rogers." The truth was, the New Year's Kiss was a big middle finger to the relentless and annoying paparazzi who'd been following them around that night. Not wanting to go anywhere else afterward, Natasha had followed him back to the apartment. Simple as that.

Steve was incredulous. "Nothing happened?"

"Nothing happened." He shrugged. Once the rush of passion subsided, Bucky and Natasha weren't quite sure how to approach each other romantically when they'd spent their whole lives arguing with each other, so they fell back on their friendship as a failsafe. He knew for sure, though, that they wouldn't be seeing other people for awhile because they'd done something different this time: to fall asleep, she'd used his arm as a pillow, and he actually didn't mind that; he liked the way she nestled herself next to him.

Despite the evidence, Steve remained skeptical. "Define 'nothing?'" His brother was not a virgin in any sense of the word, and there were different kinds of sex that Bucky and Natasha could have taken part in.

Bucky winked at his brother and asked mischievously, "Did you _want_ something to happen?"

"Ok, fine. Nothing happened then." Steve just wanted Bucky and Natasha to get together already so he didn't have to babysit them anymore. Outwardly, he sighed. "Welcome back, Bucky." He knew from the hints and the double entendres that his brother had returned to being himself again.

"When was I ever gone?"

Steve almost punched Bucky in the arm for pretending that nothing bad had happened in the last year, but he went to make brunch instead.


	22. The Rumor Mill is Active

"Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Wayne Split!"

Both Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Wayne felt that it was important to process the break-up away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi first and waited until mid-January to quietly and separately announce their amicable split from each other. Depending on who told the story, the break-up actually occurred anywhere from two to six months ago, but the people in Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Wayne's close circle of friends and family, including one gossipy Tony Stark, refused to divulge any details.

Without any facts, the tabloids and the gossip columns came up with their own reasons for the break-up in order of priority:

1. Bucky Barnes, Serial Heartbreaker

The paparazzi presented as evidence pictures of Natasha entering and exiting the apartment building where Bucky lived. When she emerged from the apartment building to go skating in Rockefeller Center, Bucky was accompanying her and they were even holding hands. Many gossip columnists and bloggers accused Natasha Romanoff of cheating on Bruce Wayne with "Serial Heartbreaker" and fellow Avenger Bucky Barnes and predicted that her relationship with Bucky Barnes would end horribly. What was Natasha thinking? She should have stayed with Bruce Wayne.

2. Steve Rogers, Captain America

Other columnists believed that the appearance of Bucky Barnes was just a front and that Natasha Romanoff was really seeing Captain America, or Steve Rogers, another fellow Avenger. Both Natasha Romanoff and Bucky Barnes frequently made public appearances together with Steve Rogers. It was feasible for Natasha to spend a lot of time with the Captain. Maybe Natasha Romanoff had grown apart from Bruce Wayne, so she moved on and began to date Steve Rogers. Besides, "a source" claimed to have seen her kissing the Captain in a shopping center.

3. Selina Kyle, Heiress and Socialite

Selina Kyle was publicly known as Bruce Wayne's ex-girlfriend from his college years. She was exactly like Bruce Wayne: rich, flirtatious and confident. Some speculated that the break-up had much to do with her insatiable desire for an increasingly extravagant but unaffordable lifestyle as it did with his playboy personality and constant partying. Sidestepping the cheating bit, rumors spread that Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne had matured and rekindled their relationship without Natasha Romanoff's knowledge.

4. Commitment Issues (Marriage, Children)

This was controversial. "A source" suspected that Natasha Romanoff was infertile and unable to bear children. This could have put a strain on her relationship with Bruce Wayne, who many people believed was ready to settle down and start a family. Others believed that either Natasha Romanoff or Bruce Wayne wasn't interested in marriage.

5. Matthew Murdock, Lawyer

This didn't seem as likely, because Matthew Murdock was currently engaged to Elektra Natchios, but the rumor mill believed he had briefly dated Natasha Romanoff. Could they have met without the public's knowledge?

Whatever the reason, the fact remained for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that Bucky and Natasha were still not officially together. Neither of them made a big deal out of the New Year's kissed and resumed their daily lunches together without any fanfare. Occasionally, some of the Avengers and Aamir would join them for lunch, but for the most part everyone left the two alone because, unless you were I.T. and had an actual plan, intervening tended to cause severe and violent problems. Even though it was known by now that Bucky had confessed his love to Natasha on Halloween not long ago, both Bucky and Natasha maintained the status quo at ambiguous friendship.

In February, Tony Stark finally couldn't endure this any longer, bet or no bet. When the Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes) defected from Russia to join Natasha and Steve as an Avenger, it had been obvious to Tony at that point that Bucky and Natasha were a lot more than "just friends."But when Natasha began to date Bruce Wayne, Tony didn't ask her about her feelings for Bucky, because he was happy for Bruce and Natasha at the time and it seemed like Natasha was happy, too. After he found out that Natasha had broken up with Bruce, it became clear to him that Natasha and Bucky had some unresolved feelings for each other that needed to be resolved, or the cycle of "ambiguous friendship-date other people-argue-break up with other people-make up-ambiguous friendship" would repeat itself again and again. So in a secret meeting with the other Avengers, Phil Coulson and Aamir from I.T., Tony Stark made a proposition:

"We need to do something about Bucky and Natasha."


End file.
